United States · Visa Bulletin
September 2026 Visa Bulletin: what was known before release
The September 2026 Visa Bulletin is now published. This dated record shows what was officially known beforehand and links to the verified September charts.
Published . Updated .
Reported and checked by Caroline M. Last checked September 3, 2026. Research and verification follow the QueueCheck editorial standards. How we verify information
Not published, and already partly answered
The September 2026 Visa Bulletin has now been published, and the verified September page linked above is the current destination for its charts and movement. This article remains as a dated record of what the State Department had put on the record by August 20, two days before publication. At that point, August still governed: EB-2 India and EB-5 unreserved India were Unavailable, EB-1 India stood at October 15, 2022, and the Department had warned that EB-1 India could become unavailable before the fiscal year ended. The forecasts circulating at the time were not official data and are not preserved here as answers.
Who is watching for the September charts
Readers reviewing the pre-release record for September 2026. Anyone making a current filing or priority-date decision should use the published September page and USCIS filing-chart selection linked above.
What the August bulletin put on the record
- The September 2026 Visa Bulletin had not been published as of August 20, 2026. The Department of State typically posts a month's bulletin in the middle-to-late part of the preceding month; the August 2026 bulletin was released on July 20, 2026.
- In the August 2026 bulletin, EB-2 India and EB-5 unreserved India are both marked Unavailable for final action, and EB-1 India holds at October 15, 2022.
- The August bulletin states that high demand and number use by applicants chargeable to India in EB-1 may necessitate making the category unavailable in the coming weeks if India's pro-rated limit is reached before the fiscal year ends.
- The same bulletin warns separately that EB-1 India may be made unavailable in the coming weeks if India's pro-rated limit is reached, and that EB-2 may need its final action date retrogressed or be made unavailable to stay within the FY 2026 annual limit.
- For August, USCIS accepts the Final Action Dates chart for employment-based adjustment filings and the Dates for Filing chart for family-sponsored filings. That selection is announced each month and is not carried over automatically.
- September 30, 2026 ends Fiscal Year 2026. Unused numbers in that year's allocation do not roll forward, and a new annual allocation becomes available on October 1, 2026.
Unavailable, the two charts, and the annual limits
Unavailable, printed as U in the charts, means no numbers are authorized for that category and chargeability area at that time. It is not a refusal, and it does not cancel a pending application.
A priority date becoming current authorises a number to be allocated. It does not by itself approve a case, and it does not shorten the adjudication that follows.
The Visa Bulletin publishes two charts each month, Final Action Dates and Dates for Filing, and USCIS announces separately which chart adjustment applicants may use that month.
Annual limits are set per fiscal year with per-country pro-rated shares, which is why a single country can hit Unavailable while the same category stays current for everyone else.
What the August 2026 charts already say for India
August 2026 Visa Bulletin (Number 17, Volume XI), transcribed from the published document; publication status of the September bulletin checked August 20, 2026
These are the operative figures until the September bulletin is published. They come from QueueCheck's transcription of the Department of State's August 2026 bulletin document, not from a forecast.
EB-2 India
Unavailable
No numbers authorized in the August chart.
EB-5 unreserved India
Unavailable
Also marked U for final action in August.
EB-1 India
15 Oct 2022
Held, with a stated possibility of unavailability before the fiscal year ends.
Fiscal year ends
30 Sep 2026
A new annual allocation becomes available October 1, 2026.
| Category, India | August 2026 final action | What it means for a pending case |
|---|---|---|
| EB-1 | October 15, 2022 | Numbers still allocable, with the Department warning the category may be made unavailable in the coming weeks. |
| EB-2 | Unavailable | No numbers for the rest of the fiscal year; the case stays pending and waits for the new allocation. |
| EB-3 | January 1, 2014 | Allocable for priority dates before the cutoff, subject to the remaining annual limit. |
| EB-5 unreserved | Unavailable | No numbers now; the reserved rural and high-unemployment set-asides are current. |
The categories already at the line
- Two India employment categories are already at Unavailable before September opens.
- The Department's own warnings name EB-1 India and, separately, the EB-2 category as where retrogression or unavailability could come before September 30.
- None of these figures are September figures. They are the August ones, and they govern until the September bulletin is published.
The Department's bulletin and the USCIS chart page
- Department of State Visa Bulletin for August 2026, Final Action Dates chart
- Department of State Visa Bulletin for August 2026, notes on number availability
Where the official record stops
- Figures are transcribed from the published August 2026 bulletin document rather than from trackers.
- QueueCheck enters a new bulletin month only from the Department's own published document.
September 2026 Visa Bulletin questions, answered
When will the September 2026 Visa Bulletin be released?
It has been published. Use the September 2026 Visa Bulletin link at the top of this page for the verified charts, filing-chart choice and movement from August. On August 20, when this record was written, the bulletin was not yet on the State Department index.
Will EB-2 India move in September 2026?
The answer is now in the published September charts. This pre-release record does not substitute its earlier context for the verified month page linked above.
My category is Unavailable. Is my application dead?
No. Unavailable stops number allocation; it does not refuse or close a pending case. The application stays pending and becomes actionable again when numbers are available, which for an exhausted category means the new fiscal year.
Can I file adjustment of status in September?
The September bulletin and USCIS chart selection are now published. Use the permanent September page or the priority-date checker linked above rather than this pre-release record.
Who can move forward, and who cannot
For anyone chargeable to India in EB-2 or EB-5 unreserved, an Unavailable designation means no visa numbers may be issued in that category for the remainder of the fiscal year, so a pending case cannot receive final approval until numbers exist again, regardless of how old the priority date is.
For EB-1 India, the practical exposure is the Department's stated possibility rather than a date on a chart: a category that goes unavailable mid-cycle stops number allocation immediately, which is why the August warning is worth more attention than any September forecast.
For everyone else, the last bulletin of a fiscal year is constrained by what is left of that year's numbers rather than by demand alone. The categories with the most room to advance are the ones furthest from their annual limits, and the broader reset for oversubscribed categories arrives with the October bulletin.
What to do before the bulletin appears
- Wait for the published September 2026 Visa Bulletin before changing any filing plan, and read it together with the USCIS chart announcement for September, because the chart selection decides whether you may file at all.
- If your category is Unavailable, keep the case current with your employer or attorney and keep documents ready; the constraint is number availability, not anything you can act on.
- If your priority date is close to a cutoff, note that the October bulletin opens the new fiscal year's allocation, which is the month oversubscribed categories are most likely to see meaningful change.
- Treat any September figure published before the Department posts the bulletin as a forecast, including numbers presented in tables that look official.
Why a fiscal year's last month has the least room
The reason the final month of a fiscal year rarely brings large forward jumps is structural rather than discretionary. By September the Department is allocating what remains of an annual limit it has been drawing down since October, which is why its own August notes discuss retrogression and unavailability rather than advancement. October begins a fresh allocation, and that is where categories held back by exhausted numbers usually get room again.
Forecasts circulated before publication, but they were never substitutes for the State Department charts. This record retains the official August context and sends current readers to the transcribed September data rather than repeating old guesses after the answer is known.
Predictions, and how far they are worth
- This record describes the published August 2026 bulletin and the absence of a September one as of August 20, 2026. The September bulletin was published later and is covered at the permanent September URL linked above.
- Pre-release forecasts were secondary commentary rather than Department of State data and have been removed from the current summary now that verified figures exist.
- Chart selection for adjustment filings is announced by USCIS month by month, so August's selection says nothing definitive about September's.
- Correction, August 21, 2026: an earlier version of this record attributed warnings about EB-2 China and EB-3 Philippines to the August bulletin. The published August document carries no such notes; its warnings cover EB-1 India and the EB-2 category, and the text above has been corrected.
- Correction, August 22, 2026: the July document has since been checked too, and it is where those warnings actually live, as its sections G and H. The original claim was misattributed rather than invented, and July's notes are now transcribed on this site.
- Update, August 22, 2026: the September 2026 Visa Bulletin has since been published, and QueueCheck has transcribed it from the Department's document. The wait this record describes is over; the September page carries the actual charts, and this page stays as a dated record of what was knowable on August 20.
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Official citation
Published August 20, 2026. Original source: U.S. Department of State: Visa Bulletin for August 2026.
- Also checked: U.S. Department of State: the Visa Bulletin index.
- Also checked: USCIS: adjustment of status filing charts (which chart to use).