The November 2026 Visa Bulletin Gives Back Three Months of the EB-2 Retrogression: What Advances on November 1, and Which Chart USCIS Says Governs Filings

What Changed, and When

The U.S. Department of State has published the Visa Bulletin for November 2026 — Volume XI, Number 20, Department of State Publication 9514 — the monthly notice that sets which priority dates are reached in the employment-based and family-sponsored immigrant visa categories. It governs the month beginning November 1, 2026.

The bulletin arrived later than usual. The Department normally posts the following month’s chart around the middle of the current month; immigration practitioners reported the November 2026 bulletin on October 22, 2026, roughly three weeks past that cadence. The bulletin itself carries a Visa Office date of October 5, 2026.

In the employment-based categories, the headline movement is in the column that covers Mexico, the Philippines and most other countries of birth — all chargeability areas except China and India:

• EB-2, professionals with advanced degrees and persons of exceptional ability. The final action date advances three months, from January 1, 2025 to April 1, 2025. This returns part of what the October bulletin took away, when the same date moved from Current to January 1, 2025. The date for filing holds at March 15, 2026.
• EB-3, skilled workers and professionals. The final action date advances one month, from May 15, 2024 to June 15, 2024. The date for filing holds at August 1, 2024.
• EB-3 Other Workers. The final action date advances five months, from January 1, 2022 to June 1, 2022, and the date for filing from June 1, 2022 to July 1, 2022.

For the two most backlogged columns the picture is narrower:

• India EB-2 holds at a final action date of November 1, 2013, unchanged from October.
• India EB-3 advances from January 1, 2014 to January 22, 2014, and India EB-3 Other Workers by the same three weeks.
• China EB-1 advances one month, from July 1, 2023 to August 1, 2023. China EB-3 advances from January 8, 2022 to January 22, 2022, and China EB-2 holds at October 1, 2021.
• EB-4 religious workers remain at December 15, 2022. In the EB-5 categories, the unreserved China and India dates do not move, and the set-aside categories remain current.

On the family-sponsored side, November is the larger story:

• F-1, unmarried adult sons and daughters of U.S. citizens, advances about a year in the worldwide, China and India columns, from January 22, 2020 to January 22, 2021.
• F-2A, spouses and unmarried children under 21 of lawful permanent residents, advances one month to October 22, 2026 for the worldwide, China, India and Philippines columns, and to April 22, 2026 for Mexico. Its date for filing remains Current.
• F-2B advances about a year in the worldwide, China and India columns, from August 22, 2019 to August 22, 2020.
• F-3 advances from October 22, 2014 to October 22, 2015, and F-4 from October 22, 2011 to October 22, 2012, in the same columns.

Which chart applies to an adjustment of status filing is a separate decision, and USCIS makes it each month. For November 2026, USCIS has stated that the Dates for Filing chart applies to both the family-sponsored preference categories and all employment-based preference categories. The agency publishes that determination on its adjustment of status filing charts page, which is the authoritative word for any given month. USCIS reassesses that choice every month, so the November designation does not carry forward on its own.

Who in Texas This Reaches

A Visa Bulletin is a national document, but the categories it moved this month are concentrated in exactly the industries and households Texas has the most of.

• Employer-sponsored professionals in the all-areas column. EB-2 and EB-3 are the ordinary paths for a worker sponsored through a labor certification: engineers and geoscientists in the energy sector, physicians, nurses, researchers and technicians across Texas hospital systems, semiconductor and software staff, and telecommunications, aviation and logistics staff.
• Applicants chargeable to Mexico and the Philippines. Both follow the all-areas column in EB-2 and EB-3, so both advance with it. Texas has the largest Mexican-born population of any state.
• EB-3 Other Workers. The five-month advance is the largest single final action movement in the November employment chart, and this is the category that covers less-skilled positions. The bulletin notes that Other Workers numbers are reduced under NACARA, and that for fiscal year 2027 the reduction will be limited to approximately 150.
• Families waiting in F-1, F-2B, F-3 and F-4. A roughly one-year advance in four categories at once reaches petitions filed in the 2010s and early 2020s, including a large share of the long-waiting family petitions filed by naturalized Texans.
• Households where a child is close to 21. This is the group for whom a chart movement can matter most, for the reason set out in the next section.
• Texas geographically, not just the big four metros. Employer-sponsored and family cases sit in Lubbock and Amarillo hospital systems, in Midland and Odessa engineering firms, in Rio Grande Valley and El Paso clinics and universities, and in Waco, Tyler and Corpus Christi. USCIS runs field offices in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, El Paso and Harlingen.

What This Changes Legally

A bulletin movement is not a decision on anyone’s case. It changes which filings the government will accept and which it will approve during the month, and those are two different questions.

• The final action date is the approval line. Under 8 U.S.C. § 1153 and the per-country limits it carries, an immigrant visa number has to be available before an application can be approved. When a final action date advances, cases with priority dates inside the new date become eligible for a number in that month.
• The date for filing is the intake line. When USCIS designates the Dates for Filing chart, as it has for November, applicants whose priority dates fall before the filing date may submit Form I-485 even though the approval line sits further back. More people may file in a month like this than may be approved in it.
• Filing and approval carry different collateral consequences. A pending adjustment application is the document that supports an application for employment authorization and for advance parole, which is why the filing chart matters to households well before the approval line reaches them.
• The age-out question runs on its own rules. Under the Child Status Protection Act framework, whether a son or daughter still counts as a child under 21 is calculated against a date tied to visa availability, and a USCIS policy change effective in August 2025 means the chart that lets a family file is not necessarily the chart used for that calculation. A month in which the charts move in different directions is a month in which this arithmetic can change for a specific household.
• A later-posted bulletin shortens the planning window, not the month. The chart still governs the full month beginning November 1 regardless of when it appeared.

What Kind of Option Might Apply

Nothing on this page is a statement about any reader’s eligibility, and a published chart cannot tell anyone whether they qualify for anything. These are the questions an immigration lawyer can take up with a household’s actual file:

• An immigration lawyer can review which column and which chart apply to a specific priority date, country of chargeability and preference category, and whether the November movement reaches it.
• An immigration lawyer can review whether a Form I-485 may be filed this month under the Dates for Filing designation, and what a pending application would and would not support.
• An immigration lawyer can review how the age-out calculation runs for a son or daughter approaching 21 against this month’s charts, including the effect of the August 2025 policy change.
• An immigration lawyer can review whether a cross-chargeability option exists for a married couple with different countries of birth, and what documentation it would require.
• An immigration lawyer can review a case where a priority date appeared to be reached and then moved back, and what the record shows about where the case stands.

If a lawyer in our network offers an initial consultation, it is free.

Why Acting Quickly Can Matter

The dates above are facts with a date attached, and the dates are the reason timing matters here.

• The chart governs one month. The November 2026 bulletin applies to the month beginning November 1, 2026. The December chart is a separate document, and the bulletin states that if it becomes necessary during the monthly allocation process to retrogress a final action date, supplemental requests for numbers will be honored only if the priority date falls within the new final action date.
• The filing designation is reassessed monthly. USCIS chose the Dates for Filing chart for November. It makes that choice again for December.
• Age-out arithmetic does not wait. A birthday is fixed, and a month in which the charts move is a month in which the calculation for a child approaching 21 can read differently than it did before.
• Assembling a complete adjustment package takes time. Medical examinations, civil documents and translations are the usual bottleneck, and they are the part a household controls.

Many people in this position start by having a lawyer read the chart against their own approval notice rather than against a summary, and it is best to talk to a lawyer before acting on a date read off a table.

Sources

1. U.S. Department of State, Visa Bulletin for November 2026, Volume XI, Number 20 (primary document).
2. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Adjustment of Status Filing Charts from the Visa Bulletin (the monthly chart designation).
3. American Immigration Lawyers Association, Adjustment of Status Filing Charts from the Visa Bulletin, November 2026, October 22, 2026.
4. Ogletree Deakins, November 2026 Visa Bulletin: Final Action Dates Advance, Filing Dates Hold, October 23, 2026.
5. WR Immigration, November 2026 Visa Bulletin: Selected Employment Categories Make Gains, Family Categories Advance, October 22, 2026.
6. 8 U.S.C. § 1153, Allocation of immigrant visas.
7. Texas Lawyer Referral Service, Worldwide EB-2 and EB-3 Priority Dates Retrogress on October 1, 2026 (the preceding month’s chart).