The State Department's October 2026 Visa Bulletin — the first of fiscal year 2027 — lists the EB-2 final action date for India at November 1, 2013, meaning Indian professionals with advanced degrees are only now reaching applications filed nearly 13 years ago. For most other countries the EB-2 cutoff is January 1, 2025. EB-3 India stands at January 1, 2014.
On Oct. 18, Rep. Josh Gottheimer renewed his call to end per-country caps, citing an August analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy projecting that an Indian national filing in January 2026 or later could face a 179-year wait in EB-2 and 38 years in EB-3, excluding processing time. That figure is a projection, not a government estimate or a guarantee for any individual case. NFAP estimates Indians make up about 79% — roughly 996,599 — of the 1,264,495 people waiting in the first three employment-based preferences.
The November bulletin has not yet been published. Readers should check their priority date against the official October charts and USCIS filing guidance, and treat any November prediction as unofficial.
