US family green card dates jump more than two years in the September bulletin

The US State Department released its Visa Bulletin for September 2026 on 22 August, and the family-sponsored side of it moved further in a single month than at any other point this fiscal year. The final action date for F3, married sons and daughters of US citizens, went from 15 May 2012 to 22 October 2014, a gain of about 29 months. F4, brothers and sisters of adult US citizens, went from 1 September 2009 to 22 October 2011, about 26 months. These are categories that normally creep forward by weeks. On the employment side only one category moved at all, and the department warned in the same document that some categories may retrogress or become unavailable before the fiscal year ends on 30 September.

How the bulletin works

The Visa Bulletin is published monthly and governs when someone with an approved immigrant petition can take the final step toward a green card. It runs on two charts. Final action dates decide when a case can actually be approved and a visa issued. Dates for filing decide when the paperwork can be submitted, which is usually earlier. Each chart lists a cut-off date per category and per country of chargeability, and you can move forward only once your priority date, the date your petition was filed, falls earlier than that cut-off. The annual limits are fixed by statute rather than by the department. For fiscal year 2026 the State Department has set the worldwide family-sponsored preference limit at 226,000 and the employment-based limit at 186,317, with a per-country cap of 28,862, or 29,136 once EB-5 carryover numbers are counted. Cut-off dates are the lever the department uses to keep issuances inside those numbers.

Why the dates moved

The department explained the advances directly in section C of the bulletin, and the reason is not rising supply. Immigrant visa issuance rates for nationals of certain countries have fallen because of recent administration actions, and the bulletin names Presidential Proclamation 10949, Presidential Proclamation 10998 and its own immigrant visa processing updates. Visa numbers that would otherwise have gone to applicants from those countries are at risk of going unused before the fiscal year closes. To put them to use, the department has advanced dates for filing and final action dates across several categories in recent months so that enough applicants from other countries can be reached. The September jumps are the largest instance of that. The department is explicit about the flip side: "as additional immigrant visa demand materializes, or administration actions are amended, retrogression may be necessary in the upcoming months to keep issuances within annual limits."

What exactly changed

Every family category moved, though not evenly. Alongside F3 and F4, F1, unmarried sons and daughters of US citizens, advanced about 13 months from 15 December 2018 to 22 January 2020. F2B, unmarried adult sons and daughters of permanent residents, advanced about 20 months from 1 January 2018 to 22 August 2019. F2A, spouses and minor children of permanent residents, moved one month to 22 August 2026, with Mexico set separately at 22 August 2025. The per-country columns matter here. India is not part of the F4 jump at all: F4 India stayed at 1 November 2006, exactly where it was in August. Philippines F4 moved 21 days to 22 August 2007, and Mexico stayed at 8 April 2001. On the dates for filing chart, F2A is current for all countries, F1 sits at 1 February 2020, F2B at 1 September 2019, F3 at 1 November 2014 and F4 at 1 November 2011, with India again separate at 15 December 2006.

Employment categories barely moved

The only employment-based movement anywhere in September was EB-4 and certain religious workers, advancing two months to 15 December 2022 for all countries. Everything else held: EB-1 at 15 October 2022 for India and 1 July 2023 for China, EB-2 China at 1 September 2021, EB-3 at 1 January 2014 for India against 1 September 2024 for most other countries, and EB-5 unreserved at 1 December 2016 for China. EB-2 India and unreserved EB-5 India are unavailable for the third consecutive month, having gone dark in the July bulletin. All three EB-5 set-aside categories remain current for every country.

Who this affects

The people most affected are those who had assumed they were still years away. A US citizen who petitioned for a married daughter in mid-2014, or for a brother in mid-2011, may find a case they had stopped actively tracking is now at the front of the queue. The same applies to a permanent resident who filed for an adult unmarried child in 2019 under F2B. For anyone consular-processing abroad, movement of this size can mean an interview appointment arriving far sooner than expected, which means medical examinations, civil documents and police certificates need to be ready quickly. Two groups should read the fine print instead of the headline. Indian F4 applicants gained nothing this month. Employment-based applicants from India in EB-2 or unreserved EB-5 cannot have a case approved at all while the category shows unavailable, however old the priority date.

What to do this month

Check your priority date against the September chart rather than against what you remember from earlier in the year, and check the column for your country of chargeability rather than the worldwide one. Then work out which chart applies to you. If you are adjusting status inside the United States, USCIS decides each month whether to accept filings against dates for filing or final action dates, and publishes that decision separately at the start of the month on its adjustment of status filing charts page. If you are consular-processing, the National Visa Center works to the final action dates. Given what the department has said about the fiscal year ending on 30 September, treat any window that opens now as one that may not still be open in October. Our United States country guide (/country-guides/united-states) covers the wider picture of moving there, and the visas and status field guide (/field-guide/visas-status) covers how immigrant queues behave over time.