The US State Department has published the October 2026 Visa Bulletin, the first of fiscal year 2027, bringing relief for Indian green card applicants as the EB-2 category reopens.

After being unavailable for July, August and September, EB-2 India reopens with a Final Action date of November 1, 2013. EB-5 Unreserved India also returns with a date of December 1, 2023, while EB-1 India advances to February 1, 2023.

Immigration attorneys have called the October bulletin disappointing overall, noting that no spillover numbers have been factored in yet, with the State Department still calculating unused visa numbers. The EB-2 India date remains stuck in 2013.

USCIS has confirmed that both family-sponsored and employment-based applicants must use the Dates for Filing chart in October — for EB-2 India, that date is January 15, 2015.

Applicants with priority dates before the cutoffs can now move their cases forward, ending the three-month freeze.