November 2026 Visa Bulletin Good News: EB-3 Advances 5 Months, Indian Family Dates Move Forward

The U.S. Department of State has released the November 2026 Visa Bulletin, delivering encouraging news for employment-based and family-based green card applicants. Most notably, the EB-3 category advances approximately 5 months, offering meaningful relief to skilled workers, professionals, and unskilled workers who have been waiting in the backlog. For Indian-born applicants specifically, the bulletin shows forward movement across both employment and family preference categories. EB-2 dates advance roughly 3 months, benefiting professionals with advanced degrees or exceptional ability. Indian family applicants in the F3 (married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens) and F4 (brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens) preference categories also see positive date movement, accelerating potential family reunion timelines. The EB-3 category remains an accessible pathway for a broad range of applicants, including those without a degree or prior work experience under the unskilled worker sub-category. The November forward movement is a signal that demand in certain categories has moderated relative to visa supply, allowing cutoff dates to progress. Applicants currently waiting for their priority dates to become current should verify their specific category and country of birth against the November 2026 Visa Bulletin charts — both the 'Final Action Dates' and 'Dates for Filing' tables — to determine eligibility to proceed with their green card applications. Immigration attorneys advise applicants to act promptly once their dates become current and to consult the USCIS Visa Bulletin Information page each month to track future movement.