EB-3 Priority Date Alert: October 2026 Visa Bulletin Brings Retrogression & New Advances

The October 2026 Visa Bulletin—the first of fiscal year 2027—delivers a mixed outcome for employment-based immigration applicants. While some categories and countries of birth saw meaningful forward movement, many EB-2 and EB-3 applicants face significant retrogression, pausing their path to permanent residence. For EB-3 sponsored workers, the most impactful change is retrogression for all countries except India, China, and the Philippines, with filing dates moving back to August 1, 2024. The Philippines holds a filing date of January 1, 2024, while India remains at January 15, 2015. China's EB-3 filing date advanced to April 1, 2024—one of the few bright spots in this category. EB-2 fared similarly difficult, with all countries outside India and China retrogressing from 'current' status to a cutoff of March 15, 2026. China advanced to January 1, 2023, and India returned from unavailability to January 15, 2015. EB-1 applicants from India and China advanced their filing dates to July 1, 2024, with all other countries remaining current. The bulletin also reflects the downstream impact of USCIS's May 2026 policy shift to use the Final Action Dates chart instead of the Dates for Filing chart for Adjustment of Status eligibility—a change that abruptly halted domestic case processing for four months and contributed to current queue pressures. Despite the setbacks, immigration practitioners urge employers to continue sponsoring foreign workers. Priority date queues historically ebb and flow, and applicants with strong priority dates who filed during favorable windows in early 2026 may already be in processing. Monitoring future bulletins and maintaining I-140 approval status remains critical for EB-3 applicants navigating the backlog.