🚨 October 2025 Visa Bulletin – Big Shifts You Need to Know

The October Visa Bulletin brings major priority-date movement, especially for Indian and Chinese nationals. Here’s what stands out for your workforce planning and green card strategy

🟩 Employment-Based (EB) Highlights

EB-1 Priority Workers

• Current for most countries.

• China: 22DEC22; India: 15FEB22 (movement forward from previous cutoffs).

• This makes EB-1 a viable option for many high-skilled professionals again

EB-2 Advanced Degree / Exceptional Ability

• All chargeability areas: 01DEC23.

• China: 01APR21.

• India: 01APR13 – while still backlogged, this is the best EB-2 India date in months and allows thousands to finally file

EB-3 Skilled Workers / Professionals

• All chargeability areas: 01APR23.

• China: 01MAR21.

• India: 22AUG13 – again, a major leap for Indian nationals.

• “Other Workers” largely mirrors EB-3 with some date adjustments

EB-5 (Investor Green Cards)

• Unreserved: Current for almost all countries, but China sits at 08DEC15 and India at 01FEB21.

• Rural / High Unemployment / Infrastructure set-asides: All Current, creating huge opportunities for faster green cards through these routes

EB-4 (Certain Special Immigrants)

• All countries set at 01JUL20.

• “Certain Religious Workers” category expired September 29, 2025 and is currently Unavailable unless extended by Congress

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🟩 Family-Based Highlights

• F1 (Unmarried sons/daughters of U.S. citizens): Most countries 08NOV16.

• F2A (Spouses/children of permanent residents): 01FEB24 (current filing dates into September 2025).

• Significant consistency across categories, but Mexico and the Philippines still face the longest backlogs

🟩 Diversity Visa (DV-2026) Lottery

• Allocations remain robust: Africa up to 17,500, Asia up to 10,000, Europe up to 7,750.

• But total DV visas reduced to ~52,000 due to NACARA and NDAA offsets

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📌 Key Takeaways for Employers & Foreign Nationals

• Now is the time to act: Thousands of Indian and Chinese nationals can file adjustment of status or immigrant visas who couldn’t before.

• PERM + I-140 combos: Employers should be ready with approved PERM and I-140s to capture these priority-date windows.

• EB-5 Set-Asides: Rural, high unemployment, and infrastructure options remain the fastest lanes for investors.

• Family-Based Cases: Steady movement but backlogs remain; encourage early document gathering.

• Religious Workers: Category expired – stay tuned for Congressional extension.

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🟩 Action Steps

• Audit your PERM pipeline: Check which employees have priority dates now current.

• Prepare filings immediately: Adjustment applications, medicals, and supporting documents should be ready to go.

• Communicate with your workforce: Employees need to know if they’re eligible to file now.

• Investors: Explore EB-5 rural or high-unemployment set-asides for faster processing.

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Bottom Line: This is the biggest forward movement in over a year for India and China EB categories. If you’ve been waiting, October may be your window.