September 2026 Visa Bulletin: Complete Analysis and Forecast

The September 2026 Visa Bulletin is out, and it splits cleanly in two. On the family side, the State Department opened the taps in a way it has not all year: F3 for most countries jumped 890 days to October 22, 2014, and F4 for the rest of the world and China leaped 781 days to October 22, 2011. On the employment side, almost nothing moved at all. Every single row of the employment-based Dates for Filing chart is identical to August, only one employment Final Action row advanced, and EB-2 India and EB-5 Unreserved India stay Unavailable for a third straight month. This is what the last month of a fiscal year looks like when family numbers are about to expire and employment numbers are already spent. Below is the full category-by-category breakdown of the official September 2026 figures, with movement from July and August 2026 for context.

This article reflects the official September 2026 Visa Bulletin (Number 18, Volume XI), published by the U.S. Department of State with a CA/VO date of August 10, 2026, covering demand received by August 10th. Every Final Action Date and Filing Date here is confirmed against the bulletin itself. These are not forecasts.

What Changed from August to September 2026

The contrast between the two halves of this bulletin is the story. Four family Final Action Dates moved forward by more than a year in a single month, and two family Filing Dates moved by more than eight months. Meanwhile the employment-based Dates for Filing chart is a carbon copy of August: every category, every country, unchanged. On the employment Final Action chart, exactly one row moved, and it was EB-4 and Certain Religious Workers, up 61 days.

Employment-Based September 2026: Final Action Dates

This is the chart that governs whether a visa number can actually be issued or a green card approved. For September, it is close to frozen. Rows highlighted in red are Unavailable, and the amber row carries an active Section E warning.

What the Employment Final Action Chart Tells You

Eighteen of the nineteen rows above are unchanged from August. That is not an accident of a slow month. It is what happens when the worldwide employment-based limit for the fiscal year, confirmed in Section D at 186,317, has already been allocated against demand that arrived earlier in the year. State has no headroom left to advance dates, and advancing them anyway would create demand it cannot satisfy before September 30.

For India, the picture is unchanged and still severe. EB-2 India and EB-5 Unreserved India have now been Unavailable since the July bulletin, which is the point at which both categories were first shut for the fiscal year. Unavailable is not a slow date, it is a closed door: no immigrant visa number can be issued and no adjustment application can be approved in that category while the “U” stands, no matter how old the priority date is. EB-1 India is the cell to watch rather than mourn. It has held at October 15, 2022 for three months, but Section E is explicit that India’s pro-rated EB-1 limit may be reached before the fiscal year ends, which would push the category to Unavailable too.

The one bright spot is EB-4 and Certain Religious Workers, which advanced 61 days to December 15, 2022 for every country. It is a modest move in absolute terms, but it is the only employment category State felt it had room to open, and the SR religious worker program continues to run against its own congressional authorization timeline. Everything else, including EB-3 India at January 1, 2014 and Other Workers India at the same date, simply waits for October.

Employment-Based September 2026: Dates for Filing

The Filing chart controls when you may submit documents to the National Visa Center, and when USCIS says so, when you may file adjustment of status. For September 2026 this chart is remarkable for a single reason: it did not move at all. Every row below is identical to the August bulletin.

Categories Now Under Active Retrogression Warning

The September bulletin carries four separate passages that bear on whether these numbers survive the month. Section C is the general warning that applies to every category. Sections E, F and G name specific ones. These are quoted verbatim below, because the exact wording, “in the coming weeks” versus “before the end of the fiscal year,” is what tells you how imminent each risk is.

Family-Sponsored September 2026 Final Action Dates

Here is where September earns its headline. Four of the five family preferences advanced for the rest-of-world, China and India grouping, and three of them advanced by more than a year and a half in one step.

Why Family Dates Jumped and Who It Actually Reaches

Family-sponsored visa numbers do not roll over. The FY-2026 family limit confirmed in Section D is 226,000, and any part of it not issued by September 30 is lost rather than banked. Section C is unusually candid about why there is slack to give away: issuance rates have fallen this year “in part due to the policies the President has put in place since January 2025” and because some posts have had limited or suspended visa operations. When issuance runs behind the annual limit, the corrective is to advance dates far enough to pull in a larger pool of documentarily qualified applicants, which is exactly what F1, F2B, F3 and F4 show this month.

The practical reach is real but narrow in time. An F3 applicant from the rest of world with a priority date anywhere from May 15, 2012 to October 22, 2014 became reachable this month after being outside the cut-off in August, a band covering nearly two and a half years of filings. F2B picks up everyone from January 1, 2018 to August 22, 2019, and F4 rest of world and China picks up September 1, 2009 to October 22, 2011. Those applicants have until September 30 to be acted on under these numbers.

Two groups conspicuously did not benefit. Mexico and the Philippines held flat in F2B, F3 and F4, because those chargeability areas are oversubscribed on their own per-country limits rather than on the worldwide pool, so a worldwide surplus does not reach them. F4 India also held at November 1, 2006 for a third consecutive month. And F2A, which spent the first half of the year as the fastest-moving category in the bulletin, has settled into a steady 31-day monthly step at August 22, 2026, which is close enough to current that there is little distance left to travel.

Family-Sponsored September 2026 Dates for Filing

The family Filing chart advanced on the same pattern, though less dramatically, and F2A remains Current for every country.

DV-2026 September Cut-Offs and the End of the Program Year

September is the final month of the DV-2026 program year, and the regional cut-off numbers jumped accordingly. Africa and Europe in particular were opened wide to use remaining diversity numbers before they expire.

What You Should Do This Month

September is a short, high-stakes month. Numbers that exist on September 30 do not exist on October 1, and categories that are open today carry written warnings that they may not be next week. Here is what that means by situation.

What to Watch in the October 2026 Bulletin

October is not an ordinary next month. It is the first month of FY-2027, when the annual limits reset and the entire allocation cycle starts over. That makes the October bulletin the most consequential release of the year, and it changes what the September numbers predict.

September 2026 Quick Reference Summary

The highest-impact cells this month, closed categories first, then the largest advances.

This article reflects the official September 2026 Visa Bulletin (Number 18, Volume XI) as published by the U.S. Department of State. Final Action Dates and Dates for Filing are set by the Department of State and can be changed, retrogressed or made Unavailable at any time, including between bulletins. USCIS separately determines each month which chart adjustment of status applicants may use, published at uscis.gov/visabulletininfo. This is general information, not legal advice. Consult a licensed immigration attorney about your specific case.