For Indian professionals awaiting an update with the EB-2 green card line, the October 2026 Visa Bulletin creates confusion. It’s the first bulletin of fiscal year 2027, and the State Department has put EB-2 India back on the board with a final action date of November 1, 2013.
“Back” is the key word. The category wasn’t sitting at that date all along. It went unavailable in July after India used up its FY 2026 per-country limit, and stayed shut through September. The June bulletin, the last one before the shutdown, had the cutoff at September 1, 2013. So the line has crept ahead by two months. Not much, but it’s something.
Who benefits? Only people whose priority date falls before November 1, 2013. That’s a small pool by now. If your I-140 was filed later than that, you’re still waiting, and nothing in this bulletin changes it.
The filing date matters more for most applicants. It sits at January 15, 2015, same as September. USCIS says it will accept the Dates for Filing chart for employment-based cases this month, which means anyone with a priority date up to that point can send in an I-485. You won’t get the green card yet. What you can get is an employment authorisation card and Advance Parole while the final decision waits its turn.
There’s bad news elsewhere in the category. EB-2 for the rest of the world, plus Mexico and the Philippines, has slid back to a final action date of January 1, 2025. Reports say that leaves no spillover numbers for India, which hurts. Those spare visas have helped Indian applicants before.
China did better, moving ahead to October 1, 2021.
If you’ve got a pending EB-2 case, compare your priority date with both charts and double-check which one USCIS is using before you file anything. A good immigration lawyer can say whether filing now is worth it for your situation.