November 2026 Visa Bulletin: Dates for Filing and EB-3 Other Workers Progress

The U.S. Department of State’s November 2026 Visa Bulletin brings a narrow opening in the Dates for Filing chart: the EB-3 Other Workers cutoff for All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed and Mexico advances from June 1, 2022, to July 1, 2022. The same areas see a larger change on the Final Action chart, advancing to June 1, 2022. The two cutoffs serve different purposes.

Only one filing cutoff moved, but several final-action dates advanced

USCIS selected the filing chart for employment-based adjustment-of-status cases in November. The tables below compare October with November. “C” means current. “No change” means the cutoff stayed at its October date; it does not mean the category has no cutoff.

Final Action chart: employment-based movement

Filing chart: November cutoffs

The EB-5 unreserved filing cutoffs shown for China and India are March 1, 2021, and May 1, 2024, respectively. Both are described as unchanged from October. The other EB-5 categories also had no month-to-month filing-date change. The Final Action chart shows the set-aside categories as current for all countries.

Across the employment-based categories, no cutoff moved backward from October to November. The main filing-chart change is the one-month advance for Other Workers in the all-other-country group and Mexico. Other filing entries for EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3 skilled workers and professionals remained where they were.

Adjustment applicants must check their priority date against the November chart

USCIS says applicants in all employment-based preference categories must use the November filing chart for adjustment-of-status applications. That direction applies to applicants filing in the United States. It is not a filing instruction for people processing an immigrant visa abroad.

Before preparing a filing, applicants and sponsoring employers should:

1. Identify the applicant’s employment preference category and country of chargeability.
2. Check the matching November cutoff in the filing chart. A priority date must be earlier than the applicable filing cutoff, or the category must be current. A date equal to the cutoff does not qualify.
3. Confirm that the applicant meets the other requirements for adjustment of status. Someone who is otherwise eligible may file Form I-485 when the date test is met.
4. Check whether the Final Action chart also permits filing. USCIS says applicants may use that chart for a category when it is current there or its cutoff is later than the corresponding filing-chart date.
5. If processing abroad, follow the Department of State and National Visa Center instructions rather than treating USCIS’s adjustment chart selection as the consular process.

A priority date that qualifies under the filing chart creates an opportunity to submit an application; it does not establish that a visa is available for final approval. The Final Action chart controls visa availability at final adjudication. Applicants abroad use the Department of State’s charts in the immigrant-visa process, with the filing chart indicating when to begin submitting documents and the Final Action cutoff governing when a visa may be issued.

A wider filing window is not an approval or a faster processing clock

The Other Workers final-action cutoff for most countries and Mexico advanced five months, compared with a one-month movement on the filing chart for that group. That difference matters when applicants compare the two tables: a larger final-action advance does not mean that the filing window expanded by the same amount.

Nor does a cutoff advance measure how quickly an individual application will be processed. It does not predict the pace of later monthly changes. The India dates in both EB-3 categories moved from January 1, 2014, to January 22, 2014, a three-week advance. China’s skilled-worker and professional cutoff moved from January 8, 2022, to January 22, 2022. India’s final-action date is not the same as China’s, and the country-specific cutoffs should be read separately.

Outside those movements, the pattern was mixed. EB-2 advanced three months for All Chargeability Areas, Mexico and the Philippines, while its China and India cutoffs did not change. EB-1 China gained one month; India stayed at February 1, 2023, and the category remained current for other countries. EB-4, Certain Religious Workers and the EB-5 final-action dates also held steady.

Family-sponsored filing dates had larger changes in selected categories. F1 advanced from February 1, 2020, to February 1, 2021; F2B moved from September 1, 2019, to September 1, 2020; and F3 moved from November 1, 2014, to November 1, 2015. F4 advanced from November 1, 2011, to November 1, 2012, for All Chargeability Areas and China; India’s F4 filing date was February 1, 2007. F2A remained current on the filing chart. These family dates are separate from the employment cutoffs above.

USCIS’s November chart selection is the filing reference for adjustment cases

Applicants preparing an adjustment filing can check USCIS’s November chart selection alongside the category and chargeability tables. Eligible applicants should compare their priority date with the applicable cutoff and prepare Form I-485 only if they meet the remaining requirements. Applicants processing abroad should follow National Visa Center instructions.