Washington, October 5, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Indian professionals seeking employment-based US Green Cards continue to face waits stretching more than a decade in key categories, according to the US State Department’s October 2026 Visa Bulletin.
The sharpest disparity is in the Employment-Based Second Preference (EB-2) category, commonly used by professionals with advanced degrees or exceptional ability. For applicants chargeable to India, the EB-2 Final Action Date is November 1, 2013, compared with January 1, 2025, for most other countries.
The gap is similarly pronounced in EB-3, which covers skilled workers and professionals. India’s Final Action Date is January 1, 2014, while the date for most other countries is May 15, 2024.
These cutoff dates do not mean every applicant will wait for exactly the stated period. They determine which priority dates are currently eligible for final action on permanent-residence applications, subject to visa availability and other requirements.
There was some movement for Indian applicants with the start of fiscal year 2027. India’s EB-1 Final Action Date, covering priority workers such as people with extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and certain multinational executives, moved to February 1, 2023.
The State Department also restored EB-2 India visa availability after all available numbers in the category for fiscal 2026 had been exhausted. The department had announced in May that the annual allocation for EB-2 applicants chargeable to India had been reached and that availability would reset with the new fiscal year on October 1.
The separate Dates for Filing chart offers somewhat later dates. For India, EB-1 stands at July 1, 2024, while both EB-2 and EB-3 are at January 15, 2015.
The distinction between the two charts is significant. The Final Action Date determines when an immigrant visa number is available for a case to be approved, while a filing date can allow an eligible applicant to submit documents or an adjustment-of-status application when the relevant authorities permit use of that chart. The State Department directs applicants to USCIS for the monthly determination on adjustment-of-status filings.
India is among the countries subject to oversubscription under the employment-based preference system. US immigration law provides an annual worldwide employment-based preference level of at least 140,000 and imposes per-country limits, contributing to prolonged backlogs where demand is particularly high.
The Visa Bulletin is updated monthly, and cutoff dates can advance, remain unchanged or move backwards depending on demand and the availability of immigrant visa numbers.
For Indian professionals who have spent years in temporary US immigration status while waiting for their priority dates to become current, the October bulletin therefore offers some movement but leaves the core employment-based backlog largely intact.
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