The Visa Bulletin for October 2026 brings exciting news for many green card hopefuls, as fresh visa allocations open up for the 2027 fiscal year.
The most significant shifts are benefiting employment-based applicants hailing from India. However, the bulletin presents a mixed outlook. As the State Department worked to reduce the number of visas issued annually, some employment-based categories that covered the majority of nations, Mexico, and the Philippines declined. That demand is impractical and largely unachievable, Murray stated to Newsweek, emphasizing that USCIS requires receipt of the documents by September, rather than applicants submitting them by month’s end.
Two categories that had been inaccessible during September have resumed operations, whereas the application deadline for Indian nationals in the EB-1 priority-worker classification has advanced. The concerning development was that the final action date for National Interest Waiver applicants outside of India had regressed to January 1, 2025. Similarly, the positive development was that India’s EB-2 and unreserved EB-5 visa categories had resumed availability following a period of unavailability. he emphasized that it cannot provide reassurance to DV lottery applicants that the program will continue operating through 2027 While acknowledging that the exclusion does not provide precise insight into future outcomes.
The most significant issue with the bulletin, according to former senior USCIS official Ricky Murray, was its delayed release, which gave impacted applicants less than two days to submit petitions and applications to USCIS . However, Murray acknowledged certain positive modifications to employment-based visa categories for candidates, calling the comprehensive situation as encompassing “the bad,” “the good,” and “the curious. “The curious is the entire DV section is missing on the October bulletin,” Murray stated.
