September 2026 Visa Bulletin: Family Dates Jump, Employment Freezes

The State Department built this bulletin on demand reported through August 10, 2026. Family categories got their largest month of the fiscal year. F3 gained 29 months, F4 nearly 26, F2B close to 20, and F1 more than 13. That beats August, which was already the family record for FY2026. F2A advanced a clean month to August 22, 2026, so it stays effectively current for spouses and minor children of green card holders.

Employment went the other way. Only EB-4 and Certain Religious Workers moved, by two months. India EB-2 and India EB-5 Unreserved are still Unavailable, now for a third straight month, and the bulletin added a third retrogression warning covering EB-5.

The reason behind the family surge has not changed. Section C says immigrant visa issuance rates dropped in FY 2026 because of policies in place since January 2025 and because some posts have had limited or suspended visa operations. So the Department keeps advancing dates for everyone else to use up FY2026 numbers before September 30, while warning that retrogression may follow in the coming weeks.

If this is your first bulletin, our complete visa bulletin guide explains priority dates and the two charts, and our August 2026 analysis has last month's numbers.

What changed this month

Family-sponsored month-over-month changes:

Employment-based month-over-month changes:

Four family categories moved more than a year each, while the main employment categories did not move at all.

Family-sponsored categories: all Final Action Dates

F3 and F4 had the biggest month of the year

F3 covers married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens. F4 covers brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens. These are the two longest family queues, and they have spent years crawling forward a month at a time. This month F3 jumped from May 2012 to October 2014, and F4 from September 2009 to October 2011.

If you filed an I-130 for a sibling in 2010 or 2011, your date may have gone from years away to available in a single bulletin. The same applies to F3 petitions filed through October 2014.

Worth checking today: two years of forward movement means a lot of people became current without warning. Pull out your I-797 approval notice and compare your priority date to the table above.

F2A is still effectively current

F2A covers spouses and unmarried minor children of a lawful permanent resident. It advanced one month to August 22, 2026, which sits within days of the present. Mexico is at August 22, 2025.

The allocation wrinkle from last month carries over. F2A numbers exempt from the per-country limit go to priority dates before August 22, 2025. Numbers subject to the limit go to every country except Mexico, for dates from August 22, 2025 up to August 22, 2026. All Mexico F2A numbers are exempt, which is why Mexico sits a year back.

In practice, if you filed an I-130 for your spouse or minor child before August 22, 2026, a number is available now. Our I-485 adjustment of status guide covers the domestic route, and I-485 versus consular processing covers the choice if your relative is abroad.

Mexico and the Philippines mostly sat this one out

The big gains landed in the worldwide, China, and India columns. Mexico moved only in F1, by a month, and the Philippines only in F4, by 21 days. India F4 did not move at all and stays at November 1, 2006.

Filing under the wrong preference category is a costly mistake because you will not find out for years. Immiva's free I-130 eligibility check tells you which category applies before you file, and I-130 priority dates and the visa bulletin walks through finding your place in line.

Employment-based categories: all Final Action Dates

Only one employment row moved

EB-4 and Certain Religious Workers advanced two months to December 15, 2022 for every country. That is the entire list of employment movement this month. EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, Other Workers, and all four EB-5 lines are identical to August, cell for cell.

India EB-2 and India EB-5 Unreserved stay Unavailable, which is stricter than retrogression. Retrogression at least keeps serving cases ahead of the cutoff. Unavailable means no numbers can be issued at all.

So India applicants should watch the Dates for Filing chart instead. India EB-2 held at January 15, 2015 there and EB-5 Unreserved at May 1, 2024. If USCIS allows that chart for September, you may still be able to submit an employment-based I-485 even though no number can be assigned yet. Immiva walks through that filing question by question and flags the errors that get applications rejected, which matters more when the earlier chart is your only route in.

There are now three warnings, not two

This is the part worth reading twice. The bulletin carries three separate warnings about categories that could retrogress or close before the fiscal year ends:

• Section E, EB-1 India. High demand may make the category unavailable in the coming weeks if India's pro-rated limit is reached.
• Section F, EB-2 across the board. Demand may require retrogressing the date or closing the category. No country is named, so this covers worldwide EB-2 as well.
• Section G, EB-5 Unreserved across the board. Same language, and this one is new this month.

EB-2 and EB-5 Unreserved are both Current for worldwide, Mexico, and the Philippines right now. A category-wide warning is the State Department saying that may not hold. India already runs into the per-country limit harder than anyone because of the employment-based green card backlog.

Which chart applies in September?

USCIS decides each month whether adjustment of status filers use Dates for Filing or Final Action Dates. Check USCIS.gov/visabulletininfo at the start of September.

Family-sponsored Dates for Filing:

Employment-based Dates for Filing:

The employment filing chart is frozen for a fourth month running. Not one cell changed.

The family filing chart tells a stranger story. It advanced, but not as fast as the final action dates underneath it, so the two charts have almost collided. In every worldwide family category carrying a date, the filing chart now sits exactly ten days ahead. Last month that gap ran from six months in F1 to a full year in F2B.

The family filing chart used to sit six to twelve months ahead of the final action dates. In September it sits ten days ahead.

That matters for a practical reason. Filing under Chart B normally buys you months of extra time, plus early access to a work permit. This month it buys you ten days. It also suggests the Department has run out of room to push family dates further without simply making the categories current.

What the final FY2026 numbers tell you

This bulletin is where the year's arithmetic gets settled. Every figure that has carried an "approximately" all year is now exact, because USCIS handed the Visa Office the underlying data on July 24.

The family-sponsored limit for FY2026 is 226,000, unchanged. The employment-based limit is 186,317. The second number is the surprise: through August the bulletin described the employment level only as "at least 140,000." The final figure lands more than 46,000 above that floor, because unused family numbers spill into the employment side. The per-country limit is 28,862, or 29,136 once carryover under INA 203(b)(5)(B) is counted, and the dependent area limit is 8,247, or 8,325 with carryover.

So the employment side had considerably more room in FY2026 than that earlier figure suggested, and the dates still did not move in the final month. Demand and processing held the dates back, not a lack of numbers. Keep that in mind when green card backlog projections get debated.

What to do before September 30

Start by finding where your own case sits. Our priority date checker explains how to read your cutoff, and the visa bulletin tool holds every month's chart, including August 2026 for comparison.

In F3 or F4: check your date against the table above before you assume you are still waiting. Two years of movement caught a lot of people by surprise. If you are current, our step-by-step I-485 guide covers the process and the I-485 document checklist tells you what goes in the package.

In F2A: a number is available. File. You will pay the filing fee through Pay.gov, since USCIS no longer accepts personal checks.

In India EB-2 or EB-5 Unreserved: a closed category does not cancel a pending I-485. Your case stays pending and you keep your work permit and Advance Parole. USCIS simply cannot approve it until numbers free up.

A green card holder with family waiting: naturalizing converts your spouse and minor children into Immediate Relatives, and the preference wait disappears entirely. The three-year rule for spouses of U.S. citizens may get you there sooner, and the N-400 residence calculator shows where you stand.

Diversity Visa update

September DV-2026 regional cutoffs are Africa 101,250 (Algeria 85,000, Egypt 50,000), Asia 40,000 (Nepal 13,500), Europe 47,500, North America (Bahamas) Current, Oceania 3,000, and South America and the Caribbean 4,750. These match the preview published in the August bulletin exactly.

Africa rose about 69 percent from August and Europe about 64 percent. This is the last month that matters. DV-2026 entitlement ends September 30, 2026, and the bulletin repeats that numbers could run out before then. If you were selected and have not finished processing, finish now. For entry rules on the next cycle, see our DV Lottery 2027 passport requirement guide.

What to expect in October 2026

October starts fiscal year 2027 with a fresh set of numbers, and that cuts both ways.

Family dates will probably pull back. F2A sitting within days of the present does not survive a fiscal year boundary, and F3 and F4 did not truly absorb two years of demand in a month. Expect corrections. That is the normal rhythm, not a crisis, but it is one more reason to file in September.

India EB-2 and EB-5 Unreserved should reopen. Both closed because India hit its pro-rated FY2026 limit, and new limits start October 1. The July bulletin suggested EB-2 would return near its May 2026 level, though later bulletins have not repeated that.

Worldwide EB-2 and EB-5 are the ones to watch. Sections F and G warn that both could retrogress or close. They have been Current all year for most countries, so a pullback would affect far more people than India's closures did.

Earlier months are covered in our July 2026 analysis and June 2026 analysis.

Official Sources

This guide uses the Visa Bulletin for September 2026, Number 18, Volume XI, published by the U.S. Department of State (Publication 9514, CA/VO August 10, 2026). Every figure was read from the official bulletin and cross-checked against the prior month's published charts.

Department of State

• Visa Bulletin Archive: index of all published bulletins
• Visa Bulletin for August 2026: month-over-month comparison baseline for every chart in this post
• Visa Bulletin for August 2026 (PDF): printer-friendly version used to cross-check the August figures
• Visa Bulletin for July 2026: source of the earlier India EB-2 and EB-5 reopening guidance
• Immigrant Visa Processing Updates: context for the Section C explanation
• U.S. Visas News: announcements on India per-country limits in EB-2 and EB-5 Unreserved

USCIS resources

• USCIS Visa Bulletin Information: which chart applies each month
• Adjustment of Status Filing Charts: how USCIS chooses between the two charts
• Form I-485 Instructions
• Form I-130 Instructions
• USCIS Filing Fees
• USCIS Processing Times

Federal law

• INA Sections 201 to 203: annual limits and preference category allocation
• INA Section 202: per-country limits, capped at 7 percent of the annual total

Immigration law changes often. We watch USCIS and State Department updates and revise this guide when the regulations change.