Green Card wait for Indians: September Visa Bulletin brings good news, and a new warning

For India's three main employment-based categories, EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3, the final action dates are frozen exactly where they were in August.

Written by Sunil Dhawan

August 22, 2026 13:55 IST

September Visa Bulletin, US Visa Bulletin released, Green Card wait for Indians, Employment Green Card Dates, EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3,

September's bulletin adds a new warning that demand could force the EB-5 unreserved category into a retrogression or a complete freeze before the fiscal year ends.

The State Department has released the September 2026 Visa Bulletin, and for Indian applicants tracking their place in the green card queue, the headline story is not in the employment categories everyone watches most closely. It is in the family-sponsored side, where dates moved forward by months, and in some cases years, within a single month.

US immigration law permits certain foreign family members of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to obtain lawful permanent residency and a Green Card through designated family relationships.

EB categories barely moved for India

For India’s three main employment-based categories, EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3, the final action dates are frozen exactly where they were in August. EB-1 stays at October 15, 2022, EB-2 remains unavailable, and EB-3 sits at January 1, 2014, unchanged.

This means applicants in these queues gained no ground this month. The only employment-based movement for India came in EB-4, where the final action date advanced two months, from October 15, 2022, to December 15, 2022. Filing dates across every employment category for India, including EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, and EB-5 unreserved, are identical between the August and September bulletins. In effect, the wait for India’s largest employment-based pools has stood still.

A new warning has entered the picture for EB-5

August’s bulletin carried caution notes on EB-1 and EB-2 for India, both warning that high demand could force the categories to become unavailable before the fiscal year ends. September repeats both warnings, but adds a new one.

For the first time, the bulletin flags the EB-5 unreserved category itself, warning that demand could force a retrogression or a complete freeze before September 30. This is a fresh addition since August, and it matters directly to Indian investors relying on the EB-5 route, since the category had been marked “Unavailable” for India’s final action date in both months regardless.

The bulletin states: Sufficient demand and increased number use in the EB-5 unreserved visa category may make it necessary to retrogress the final action date or make the category unavailable before the end of the fiscal year to hold number use within the maximum allowed under the FY 2026 annual limit.

Family categories saw real movement

While employment-based dates stayed still, the family-sponsored side for India moved considerably. F1, for unmarried sons and daughters of US citizens, advanced its final action date by about five weeks, from December 15, 2018, to January 22, 2020. F2A moved forward roughly a month, tracking the routine monthly progression built into that category.

The bigger jumps came further down the family chart. F2B, covering unmarried adult sons and daughters of permanent residents, advanced its final action date by over a year and a half, from January 1, 2018, to August 22, 2019.

F3, for married sons and daughters of US citizens, moved even further, its final action date jumping from May 15, 2012, to October 22, 2014, a leap of more than two years within a single monthly update. F4, covering siblings of adult US citizens, held steady at November 1, 2006.

The filing dates chart tells a similar story. F1’s filing date advanced about eight months, and F2B’s filing date jumped from January 1, 2019, to September 1, 2019. F3’s filing date moved from March 1, 2013, to November 1, 2014, again a jump of well over a year. For families waiting years to be reunited, this kind of monthly acceleration is unusual and worth watching closely for whether it continues into October.

The worldwide numbers were also recalculated

Beyond individual category dates, the two bulletins reflect a change in how the overall employment-based limit is being counted. August’s bulletin listed the worldwide annual employment-based preference level as “at least 140,000.” September’s bulletin fixes this figure at 186,317, following USCIS data submitted to the State Department in late July. This recalculation also raised the per-country limit for FY 2026, from 25,620 to 28,862, and the dependent area limit from 7,320 to 8,247.

These are administrative adjustments rather than direct relief for any single category, but they shape how much room exists across the system for the rest of the fiscal year.

What this means for Indian applicants

Put together, the picture for September is one of two speeds. Employment-based applicants from India, particularly in EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3, are looking at a month where nothing changed, alongside a fresh warning that EB-5 unreserved could tighten further before the fiscal year closes.

Family-sponsored applicants, on the other hand, saw some of the fastest date movement in recent bulletins, especially in the F2B and F3 categories. With the fiscal year ending on September 30, both the diversity visa cutoffs and these newly advanced family dates carry a built-in urgency, since unused numbers do not carry forward once October’s bulletin resets the count for FY 2027.