The Department of State has just issued the October 2026 Visa Bulletin. This blog post analyzes this month’s Visa Bulletin.

Visa Bulletin

Table A: Final Action Dates. Applications with these dates may be approved for their Green Card (Permanent Residency card) or Immigrant Visa appointment:
Table B: Adjustment of Status Filing Chart

USCIS will use the Table B Dates for Filing chart for I-485 employment-based filings in October 2026.
MU Law Analysis
The first visa bulletin of the Fiscal Year reflects a new set of visas for anyone looking to obtain an immigrant visa over the next year.

• EB-2 for Mexico, Philippines, and All Chargeability Areas retrogressed from current to Jan 1, 2025 (21 months).
• EB-2 India, which became unavailable in July 2026, advanced 2 months from the last available date.
• EB-3 Philippines advanced by 2 weeks.

All Chargeability Areas saw retrogression in EB-2 (5 months) and EB-3 (2 years, 9 months). The Visa Bulletin notes that these retrogressions are necessary to keep on target with their quarterly limits and may change as the year progresses.

The past fiscal year brought unusually strong forward movement in the Visa Bulletin, but much of that progress came from temporary restrictions on certain countries. Immigrant visas were effectively unavailable to nationals of dozens of countries under the 75-country pause and the 39-country presidential proclamation, meaning fewer applicants were able to use their allotted numbers and allowed dates to advance for everyone else. The 75-country ban was struck down by court order in August 2026, while the 39-country proclamation remains in effect, so the pool of blocked applicants is smaller and we can expect more modest movement in FY2027.

At the time of writing, immigrant visa issuance from all countries is paused while the Department of State conducts internal training on the new public charge guidance. MU attorneys have seen a handful of interviews scheduled for early October, so it is possible that the pause will be lifted soon.

On October 13 at 2pm EDT MU will be hosting a webinar that discusses the October Visa Bulletin in more detail, as well as the latest on consular immigrant visa processing and H-1B issues. Click here to register.