US visa bulletin October 2025: Major relief for EB categories; hope rises for family green card applicants

The US visa bulletin for October sees major movements of dates for India in the first visa bulletin for the fiscal year 2026 that begins on October 1. The Final Action Date for EB-5 (unreserved) India applications will move forward by almost 15 months, while other EB categories also see some positive movement.

The EB-5 visa is an immigrant investor visa program which gives a green card to investors. The Final Action Date for India moved from November 15, 2018 to February 1, 2021.In EB-2, Final Action Date moved by three months from January 1, 2013 to April 1, 2013. In EB-3 category, the movement for Indian applicants is by three months. In the family visa category, F2A visa, meant for spouses and children of permanent residents, the Final Action Date sees a movement of 17 months from September 1, 2022 to February 1, 2024. The Final Action Date is the cutoff date the US State Department uses ti decide whether a green card/visa can be issued or approved. If your priority date is earlier than the Final Action Date in your category, then a visa is available now. US visa bulletin October 2025 also announced the cap of family visa for 2026 is 226,000. " The fiscal year 2026 limit for family-sponsored preference immigrants determined in accordance with Section 201 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) is 226,000. The worldwide level for annual employment-based preference immigrants is at least 140,000. Section 202 prescribes that the per-country limit for preference immigrants is set at 7% of the total annual family-sponsored and employment-based preference limits, i.e.

, 25,620. The dependent area limit is set at 2%, or 7,320," the bulletin said. Major takeaways for India from the October visa bulletin