November 2026 Visa Bulletin: Family Dates Jump a Year

The November 2026 Visa Bulletin moves four family-based green card categories forward by a full year in a single month. The State Department’s bulletin advances the worldwide final action dates for unmarried adult children of citizens (F1), unmarried adult children of green card holders (F2B), married children of citizens (F3) and siblings of adult citizens (F4) by 12 months each, while employment-based applicants outside India and China get smaller gains, led by a three-month jump in EB-2.

For families that have waited a decade or more, a one-year jump is unusual. Family-preference dates typically creep forward by weeks or a few months at a time. A move of this size in the second month of fiscal 2027 brings a whole year’s worth of priority dates, people who filed petitions years ago, into range for a visa interview or a green card approval at once.

USCIS has also confirmed that for November 2026, for all employment-based and family sponsored preference categories, you must use the Dates for Filing chart in the Department of State Visa Bulletin for November 2026.

How far the November 2026 Visa Bulletin moved

The final action date is the cutoff that decides whether a green card can actually be issued: an applicant whose priority date falls before it can be approved. The table compares the chart for applicants from most countries, labeled “All Chargeability Areas,” with October.

Category	October 2026	November 2026	Change
F1	Jan. 22, 2020	Jan. 22, 2021	+12 months
F2A	Sept. 22, 2026	Oct. 22, 2026	+1 month
F2B	Aug. 22, 2019	Aug. 22, 2020	+12 months
F3	Oct. 22, 2014	Oct. 22, 2015	+12 months
F4	Oct. 22, 2011	Oct. 22, 2012	+12 months
EB-2	Jan. 1, 2025	April 1, 2025	+3 months
EB-3	May 15, 2024	June 15, 2024	+1 month
EB-3 Other Workers	Jan. 1, 2022	June 1, 2022	+5 months

Final action dates, All Chargeability Areas. Source: U.S. Department of State, Visa Bulletins for October 2026 and November 2026. The change column is a calculation from those bulletins.

Chinese and Indian family applicants in F1, F2B and F3 share the worldwide dates, so they get the same 12-month gains. Two large groups do not. India’s F4 date stays at Dec. 15, 2006, and every Philippine family date is unchanged from October. Mexico moves only slightly: F1 by two weeks to Sept. 22, 2008, F3 by two weeks to July 15, 2001, with F2B and F4 frozen.

F2A, the category for spouses and minor children of green card holders, now has a final action date of Oct. 22, 2026. In practice that makes the category close to current for anyone already in line, and its separate filing chart is marked “C,” for current, as it was in October.

Employment categories: worldwide gains, India and China mostly stuck

The employment side is quieter. Worldwide EB-2 moves to April 1, 2025, a partial recovery after the October bulletin opened fiscal 2027 by retrogressing worldwide EB-2 and EB-3, a step the State Department said was needed to keep issuances within quarterly and annual limits. Worldwide EB-3 gains a month, and the EB-3 Other Workers category for lesser-skilled jobs jumps five months.

For India, the movement is measured in days. EB-3 and Other Workers advance three weeks to Jan. 22, 2014. India EB-2 stays at Nov. 1, 2013, and EB-1 at Feb. 1, 2023. China gains a month in EB-1, to Aug. 1, 2023, and two weeks in EB-3, while China EB-2 holds at Oct. 1, 2021. EB-4, the religious worker category and EB-5 are unchanged.

For Indian born potential I-485 applicants based on the dates for filing you are eligible to file if your priority date is on or before the following dates depending on the preference category. So no changes since the October visa bulletin.

EB-1: July 1, 2024

EB-2: Jan 15, 2015

EB-3: Jan 15, 2015

The employment dates for filing, which govern when many applicants may submit a green card application early, are almost identical to October’s. The only change is worldwide and Mexico Other Workers, which moves one month to July 1, 2022.

Why the family jump matters, and what could undo it

The bulletin restates the statutory floor: at least 226,000 family-preference visas and at least 140,000 employment-based visas a year, with a per-country limit of 25,620. Those numbers are fixed by Congress. When dates leap forward this early in the fiscal year, the usual reading is that the State Department sees fewer documentarily qualified applicants than numbers available and is pulling more people forward to make sure the year’s visas get used. That reading fits the data but is not stated in the bulletin, which gives no explanation for the family movement.

The risk is the one October already illustrated. Large advances can draw a wave of demand that forces dates back later in the year, and the bulletin warns that if a final action date has to retrogress during the month, only applicants within the new cutoff will be served. Families whose dates are now current would be wise to treat the window as possibly temporary and move consular paperwork, including affidavits of support and civil documents, without delay.

Applicants already in the United States face one more variable. USCIS decides each month whether adjustment of status applicants use the final action dates or the dates for filing, and posts the choice on its adjustment filing charts page. The family dates for filing advanced by the same 12 months as the final action dates, to Feb. 1, 2021 for F1, Sept. 1, 2020 for F2B, Nov. 1, 2015 for F3 and Nov. 1, 2012 for F4, so either chart opens new filings for U.S.-based family applicants.

For context on how these lines got so long, see the October bulletin’s retrogression of worldwide EB-2 and EB-3, the queue math behind India’s EB-2 wait, the delayed release of the October bulletin and how Gold Card petitions interact with EB-1 and EB-2 dates.

What to watch

USCIS chart choice: the agency’s November adjustment filing charts announcement, which decides which table applies to applicants inside the U.S.
December 2026 bulletin: whether the family gains hold or the State Department signals corrective action.
Religious workers: the October bulletin noted that the EB-4 religious worker category is extended only through Dec. 11, 2026, under H.R. 6500.

This article is for general information and is not legal advice.

Sources

Vasanth Vaidyanathan, Esq.

Administrator

Vasanth Vaidyanathan is an immigration attorney with over 20 years of experience focused exclusively on U.S. immigration and nationality law. He holds a LL.M. from California Western School of Law, San Deigo and advises individuals and businesses on employment and family-based immigration matters, including H-1B, PERM, EB categories, and adjustment of status. He has also been a featured speaker at immigration seminars across the U.S. To reach Vasanth visit: https://www.vnathan.com/

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