Hyderabad — The U.S. Department of State’s September 2026 Visa Bulletin — the final one of Fiscal Year 2026 — leaves Indian applicants in a familiar but important position. EB-2 has reached its pro-rated allocation for the year, EB-1 has held steady, and EB-3 continues to move at its long-standing pace. None of this is unusual for the India employment-based categories, but it is worth understanding clearly, because the choices available to applicants differ depending on where a case currently sits.

The Current Numbers

Every employment-based Final Action Date held steady this month except EB-4. For India, three figures matter most:

• EB-2 India: Unavailable for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2026. India’s pro-rated FY2026 allocation has been used, and no further EB-2 numbers will be issued to Indian applicants until the new fiscal year opens on October 1. This is a scheduling pause tied to annual allocation limits, not a change in eligibility or a loss of any applicant’s place in line.
• EB-1 India: October 15, 2022. This date has held for several months. The State Department has noted that continued high demand could affect availability later in the fiscal year, so applicants in this category may want to keep an eye on upcoming bulletins.
• EB-3 India: January 1, 2014 on the Final Action Dates chart, and January 15, 2015 on the more permissive Dates for Filing chart.

There is a genuinely encouraging structural detail here: Congress has confirmed a total FY2026 employment-based ceiling of 186,317 visas — well above the usual 140,000 floor — and the State Department has indicated that the EB-2 India date should advance again once FY2027 numbers become available on October 1. Attorneys generally advise treating this as a positive signal rather than a guarantee, since the October and November bulletins will be the first real indicators of how far the category moves.

Priority Date Retention Through EB-1A: An Option Worth Evaluating

For applicants who already hold an approved EB-2 or National Interest Waiver I-140, one option worth discussing with an attorney is filing for EB-1A, the “extraordinary ability” category. The appeal is priority date retention — a successful EB-1A petition allows an applicant to carry an earlier priority date forward into a category that, on paper, tends to move faster.

That said, EB-1A is not a simple recategorization, and it is worth being clear-eyed about the standard. Petitions are evaluated under 8 C.F.R. § 204.5(h)(3), which sets out ten regulatory criteria, at least three of which must generally be satisfied (or one major internationally recognized award). Petitioners must then satisfy the “final merits determination” — the second half of the two-step framework from Kazarian v. USCIS, 596 F.3d 1115 (9th Cir. 2010), which USCIS has since applied nationwide. This second stage is where a number of otherwise well-documented petitions fall short, because an adjudicator concludes the record does not show sustained acclaim at the top of the field.

There has been a meaningful development on this front. In Mukherji v. Miller (D. Neb., Jan. 28, 2026), a federal district court found that USCIS’s use of the final merits determination was procedurally unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act, in a case where the agency had conceded the petitioner met the regulatory criteria but denied the petition on subjective grounds. The ruling is not binding nationwide and does not remove the final-merits step from ordinary adjudication, but immigration attorneys view it as a notable and citable precedent for future appeals — and a useful data point for applicants weighing this route.

The key takeaway attorneys emphasize: an approved EB-2 petition is not, by itself, evidence of EB-1A eligibility — the two standards are legally distinct. The recommended first step is a criterion-by-criterion audit of the applicant’s record against the regulatory standard before any petition is filed.

Practical Options While EB-2 India Is Paused

The EB-2 pause is temporary and tied to the fiscal year calendar rather than to any individual case. In the meantime, applicants and their employers have several legitimate paths to keep a case moving or to preserve status:

• Maintain nonimmigrant status through AC21. Applicants with an approved I-140, or whose PERM labor certification or I-140 has been pending for 365 days or more, may be eligible for H-1B extensions beyond the standard six-year limit under sections 106(a) and (b) of the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act (AC21). This is often the most immediate and reliable way to preserve status while a priority date advances.
• Consider the EB-1A route where the record supports it. As discussed above, this can allow priority date retention for applicants who genuinely meet the extraordinary ability standard.
• Evaluate job portability under AC21 §204(j). Once an I-485 has been pending 180 days, applicants may be able to change employers or job duties in a same or similar occupational classification without restarting the process.
• Revisit EB-3 for cases where it offers an earlier effective date. Because EB-2 and EB-3 dates move independently, some cases benefit from a downgrade or a parallel EB-3 filing, depending on the underlying PERM and the applicant’s qualifications.
• For applicants with investment capacity, EB-5 remains a direct, treaty-independent route to a green card, worth discussing as a parallel or alternate strategy rather than a replacement for an employment-based case already in progress.
• File for a Dates for Filing advance where available to submit the I-485, work authorization, and travel documents earlier, even while the Final Action Date has not yet been reached.

None of these substitute for individualized legal advice — the right combination depends on the applicant’s underlying PERM category, employer relationship, and timeline — but they represent the realistic toolkit available to Indian applicants navigating this year’s bulletin.

The Bottom Line

The September bulletin reflects an annual allocation limit reached, not a structural collapse of the India employment-based pipeline. Attorneys reviewing the bulletin advise applicants to treat EB-1A as a genuine but evidence-driven option — one made somewhat stronger by the Mukherji ruling — and to focus practical energy on status-maintenance strategies like AC21 extensions and portability while the October and November bulletins, the first of FY2027, indicate how much movement is actually coming.

About the Author

Tulasi Matta is an India-based lawyer focused on employment-based green card solutions, including EB-1A and EB-2 NIW petitions, alongside international contracts and transnational family matters. She advises on strategy across the employment-based immigration pipeline as CEO of Docket Help Services Pvt. Ltd. (DHSPL)