The State Department released the October 2026 Visa Bulletin this morning, and employment-based applicants had a rough one: most categories for most countries just retrogressed, sometimes by years, on the first bulletin of the new fiscal year. If you or someone in your household has a green card application in process, the news cycle around this bulletin is confusing. What actually matters for your travel plans is simpler than the headlines suggest, and it has almost nothing to do with which way the dates moved.
What changed in October
The broad pattern: China advanced sharply, almost everyone else retrogressed. EB-2 Final Action Dates for China moved a month to October 1, 2021, while EB-2 for the Rest of the World, Mexico and the Philippines retrogressed to January 1, 2025. EB-3 Professionals and Skilled Workers for China jumped more than two years to April 1, 2024, while EB-3 for every other country pulled back over two years, to August 1, 2024. On the Dates for Filing side, the category most people use to submit their adjustment-of-status paperwork, Rest-of-World EB-2 retrogressed from current all the way to March 15, 2026, while China’s filing date advanced a full year.
There is one piece of good news buried in there: USCIS confirmed it will accept October adjustment-of-status filings under the more generous Dates for Filing chart (Chart B), not the stricter Final Action chart. If your priority date is current under Chart B this month, you can still file, even though your case will not be approved until your Final Action Date arrives.
Why October always does this
This is not a one-off. October is the first month of the federal fiscal year, when the annual per-country visa limits reset. USCIS and the State Department often open the year generously on paper and then pull back hard once they see how many applicants are actually ready to file, which is exactly the retrogression pattern in this bulletin. If you have watched the Visa Bulletin for more than a year, a rough October is closer to normal than an exception.
The travel question the bulletin doesn’t answer
A retrogressed priority date does not, by itself, revoke a properly filed and still-pending Form I-485 adjustment-of-status application. If you filed while your category was current or under Dates for Filing, your case generally stays pending even after the dates move backward; you simply wait longer for a final decision. That is the part the news coverage gets right.
What the news coverage skips is the actual travel risk, and it is unrelated to this month’s numbers: leaving the United States while a Form I-485 is pending, without first obtaining Advance Parole, is generally treated as abandoning your application. There are exceptions, mainly for people who hold valid H-1B, H-4, L-1 or L-2 status and maintain it throughout the trip, but for most applicants, an approved Advance Parole document (Form I-131) in hand before departure is the only safe way to leave and come back without restarting the case.
What to actually do before you book anything
- Check your own category and country on the official bulletin at travel.state.gov, not a summary site, since the Final Action and Dates for Filing charts move independently and a headline about “China” or “retrogression” may not describe your case at all.
- Confirm your Advance Parole is approved, not just filed, before you buy any international ticket. Processing times fluctuate, and a pending I-131 does not let you travel.
- Book refundable fares and refundable hotel rates if your trip depends on a document that has not been approved yet. This applies whether you are traveling to see family, for work, or for anything else.
- If you are using an immigrant visa at a US consulate abroad rather than adjusting status inside the country, a different set of wait times applies at the National Visa Center and the consulate itself, on top of the Visa Bulletin dates.
None of this is new legal advice created by the October bulletin. It is the standing rule for anyone with a pending adjustment of status, and it matters more in a month like this one specifically because a bad bulletin tends to push people toward booking trips out of frustration, right when their travel document situation deserves the most caution.
If you are traveling to or within the US on any status this fall, our guide to the State Department’s travel advisory levels explains how to read the separate system that governs where the US government recommends citizens travel abroad, and our piece on the new US citizenship verification rules covers a different recent change affecting travelers and immigrant communities.
This article reflects the Visa Bulletin for October 2026, released September 29, 2026. Bulletin dates change monthly; always confirm current dates at travel.state.gov before making travel or filing decisions.
