The State Department published the August 2026 Visa Bulletin, Number 17 of Volume XI, covering the second to last month of fiscal year 2026. Almost all of the movement landed on the family-sponsored chart. The employment-based chart barely shifted.
F2A moved further than any category has in years
The F2A Final Action Date, covering spouses and minor children of permanent residents, advanced roughly 567 days. That is about eighteen months and three weeks, to 22 July 2026 for All Other Areas, China and India. Mexico advanced 568 days, to 22 July 2025.
A Final Action Date of 22 July 2026 sitting inside an August 2026 bulletin is worth pausing on. It means the cutoff had effectively caught up with recent filings, so nearly every F2A applicant with a priority date on the books became actionable at once. On the Dates for Filing chart, F2A is listed as Current for every chargeability area.
The rest of the family chart
- F1 advanced about ten months to 15 December 2018 for All Other Areas, China and India.
- F2B advanced 40 days to 1 January 2018. The Philippines advanced 17 days to 1 June 2013.
- F3 did not move, holding at 15 May 2012.
- F4 advanced about eight months to 1 September 2009 for All Other Areas and China.
On the Dates for Filing chart, F2B advanced roughly seven months and F1 roughly five months for All Other Areas, China and India.
Employment-based inched
EB-1 remained current for every chargeability area except China and India. China advanced one month to 1 July 2023. India held at 15 October 2022.
EB-2 was unchanged from July across the board. EB-2 India remained unavailable, because the available visa numbers for fiscal year 2026 had already been allocated. That designation dated from July, and it meant USCIS would not process India EB-2 adjustment applications until the new fiscal year opened in October.
EB-3 advanced 31 days in every chargeability area, reaching 1 September 2024 for All Other Areas and Mexico, 1 January 2022 for China, 1 January 2014 for India and 1 August 2023 for the Philippines. EB-4 and Certain Religious Workers advanced to 15 October 2022. EB-5 showed no movement at all, and EB-5 Unreserved for India remained unavailable.
Which chart applied
USCIS directed employment-based adjustment applicants to the Final Action Dates chart for August, and family-sponsored applicants to the Dates for Filing chart. That split has held steady through the closing months of the fiscal year.
The warning, and what happened next
The bulletin repeated the explanation that has run through recent months. Immigrant visa issuance for nationals of certain countries decreased in light of administration actions, including Presidential Proclamations 10949 and 10998, so the Department advanced dates in several categories to use the visa numbers available in fiscal year 2026. It cautioned that retrogression or additional unavailable designations might become necessary as demand developed, and that any category could become unavailable before 30 September if an annual, category or per-country limit were reached.
August singled out EB-1 India, noting that high demand and number use might require making the category unavailable in the coming weeks. A month later that warning widened. The September bulletin extended it to EB-2 across all countries and to EB-5 Unreserved, and the employment chart stopped moving almost entirely. We covered that in our September bulletin analysis.
