September 2026 Visa Bulletin: EB Categories Frozen, F3 & F4 Surge Up to 2+ Years

The U.S. Department of State has released the September 2026 Visa Bulletin, revealing a complete freeze on employment-based Final Action Dates — with the sole exception of EB-4 Special Immigrants and Religious Workers, which advances two months to December 15, 2022. For EB-3 applicants, cutoff dates remain unchanged: Worldwide and Mexico hold at September 1, 2024; China at January 1, 2022; Philippines at August 1, 2023; and India at January 1, 2014. A significant warning accompanies this bulletin: the State Department cautions that EB-2 Worldwide, EB-1 India, and EB-5 unreserved categories may become unavailable before the end of September due to annual visa number exhaustion. Availability is expected to resume when the new fiscal year begins in October 2026. EB-2 India and EB-5 India remain unavailable this month. For adjustment of status purposes, USCIS will continue using the Final Action Dates Chart for employment-based categories and the Dates for Filing Chart for family-sponsored categories. No changes were made to the employment-based Dates for Filing chart from August. The headline story of this bulletin is the dramatic movement in family-sponsored categories. F3 (Married Sons and Daughters of U.S. Citizens) advances an extraordinary 2 years and 5 months for Worldwide, China, and India to October 22, 2014. F4 (Brothers and Sisters of Adult U.S. Citizens) gains 2 years and 1 month Worldwide and for China, reaching October 22, 2011. F2B (Unmarried Adult Sons and Daughters of Permanent Residents) advances 1 year and 7 months to August 22, 2019. EB-3 applicants should note that while this month brings no forward movement in their final action dates, the approaching fiscal year end in September historically triggers a reset that may benefit employment-based categories in October. Applicants with priority dates near current cutoffs should monitor the October 2026 bulletin closely for potential advances.