Seven months into fiscal year 2026, the EB-2 category tells three very different stories depending on where you were born. For applicants from most countries, the queue has evaporated — Final Action Dates went current in April. For India, priority dates have advanced roughly 15 months since October, the fastest sustained movement in years. For China, dates have barely budged.
All three outcomes trace to the same structural cause. Understanding the mechanism matters, because the conditions producing this movement are temporary, contested in federal court, and could reverse.
The numbers
EB-2 Rest of World, Mexico, and Philippines
The progression on the Final Action Dates chart:
| Bulletin Month | Final Action Date | |---|---| | Oct 2025 | ~Oct 2023 | | Dec 2025 | Feb 1, 2024 | | Mar 2026 | Oct 15, 2024 | | Apr 2026 | Current |
EB-2 for non-oversubscribed countries went from carrying a roughly 12-month backlog at the start of the fiscal year to no backlog at all. Any applicant chargeable to these areas with an approved I-140 can now file an I-485 — or have one approved — regardless of priority date.
On the Dates for Filing chart (which USCIS has used for I-485 eligibility every month this fiscal year), EB-2 Rest of World went current in March 2026.
EB-2 India
India's Final Action Dates advanced across every month except two stalls — and then exploded in April:
| Bulletin Month | Final Action Date | Monthly Advance | |---|---|---| | Oct 2025 | Apr 1, 2013 | — | | Nov 2025 | Apr 1, 2013 | None | | Dec 2025 | May 15, 2013 | ~6 weeks | | Jan 2026 | Jul 15, 2013 | ~2 months | | Feb 2026 | Jul 15, 2013 | None | | Mar 2026 | Sep 15, 2013 | ~2 months | | Apr 2026 | Jul 15, 2014 | ~10 months |
The April jump — 303 days in a single bulletin — is one of the largest single-month advances for EB-2 India in recent fiscal years. Over the full seven months, the category has advanced approximately 15.5 months of priority dates, averaging roughly 132 days of forward movement per month with a sharply accelerating trend.
On the Dates for Filing chart, EB-2 India moved to January 15, 2015 in April — a 335-day advance from the prior month.
The scale of this movement is real. The context is important: the Final Action Date still sits at July 2014. The backlog is still approximately 12 years. A professional who filed their I-140 in 2024 is likely looking at a wait measured in well over a decade under current conditions.
EB-2 China
China has been the outlier. Total Final Action Date movement across FY2026: approximately five months.
| Bulletin Month | Final Action Date | |---|---| | Oct 2025 | ~Apr 2021 | | Dec 2025 | Jun 1, 2021 | | Mar 2026 | Sep 1, 2021 | | Apr 2026 | Sep 1, 2021 |
The Dates for Filing chart has been frozen at January 1, 2022 for months. China EB-2 saw no movement at all in the April bulletin on either chart. The backlog remains approximately five years — shorter than India's, but effectively static.
What's driving the movement
The mechanism is straightforward, and it is not organic demand reduction.
Presidential Proclamations 10949 and 10998, effective January 20, 2025, suspended immigrant visa issuance for nationals of 75 countries. The suspension covers consular processing — applicants abroad cannot receive immigrant visas while the freeze is in effect, even if their priority dates are current.
The employment-based system operates under a fixed annual cap of approximately 140,000 immigrant visas. When a large segment of otherwise-eligible applicants is removed from the active demand pipeline — because consular posts are not processing their visas — projected demand falls. The State Department can then advance cutoff dates more aggressively without risking oversubscription of the annual cap.
This dynamic is familiar. During the COVID-era consular closures of 2020 and 2021, widespread shutdowns similarly depressed visa issuance, freed quota space, and allowed adjustment-of-status priority dates to advance faster than they otherwise would have.
The effect is concentrated in two ways:
Rest of World benefits most directly. With demand from 75 countries removed from the pipeline, there are simply fewer applicants competing for the non-oversubscribed country allocation. The queue cleared.
India benefits from spillover. Under INA Section 202(e), visa numbers unused by non-oversubscribed countries fall to oversubscribed ones. India — with by far the largest EB-2 backlog — absorbs a substantial share. The April 10-month jump reflects the State Department redistributing unused numbers to probe demand at higher cutoff dates.
China benefits less. China's EB-2 demand relative to its backlog is different in structure. The near-freeze on China's dates, even as India and ROW advance, reflects tighter demand dynamics in the China pipeline. Analysis from WR Immigration characterizes the movements as "a series of adjustments" driven by visa number allocation strategy rather than sustained backlog reduction.
The retrogression question
The State Department has included explicit retrogression warnings in recent bulletins. The April 2026 bulletin states that retrogression may be necessary later in the fiscal year to keep issuances within annual limits.
This is not boilerplate. Three factors make the risk concrete:
Filing surge. The forward movement — particularly EB-2 going current for Rest of World and the Dates for Filing chart advances for India — will generate a wave of new I-485 filings. USCIS has used the Dates for Filing chart for six consecutive months, actively encouraging filings. If the volume of adjustment applications exceeds projections, the State Department will pull dates back.
75-country freeze litigation. Lawsuits challenging Proclamations 10949 and 10998 are pending in federal court. If a court orders the freeze lifted, consular processing would resume for nationals of those 75 countries. The pent-up demand would re-enter the pipeline immediately, tightening visa availability and putting downward pressure on dates. The longer the freeze remains in place, the larger the pent-up demand pool grows.
Fiscal year calendar. Retrogression is most common in Q3 and Q4 of the fiscal year (April–September), as cumulative visa issuance approaches the annual cap. The dramatic forward movement of the first seven months increases the probability of a mid-year correction.
There is precedent. In October 2023, EB-2 India retrogressed from June 2012 back to January 2010 — erasing over two years of progress in a single bulletin.
What this means in practice
For EB-2 Rest of World applicants with approved I-140 petitions: file your I-485 now if you have not already. Current status in both charts is the best possible position. It is not guaranteed to last.
For EB-2 India applicants whose priority dates are before January 15, 2015 (the current Dates for Filing cutoff): you can file an I-485. Filing unlocks employment authorization and advance parole, independent of employer sponsorship. These benefits persist even if dates subsequently retrogress, as long as the I-485 remains pending.
For EB-2 China applicants: the filing window remains narrow. Dates for Filing at January 1, 2022 means only those with priority dates before that date can file. Movement has been minimal and the near-term outlook does not suggest acceleration.
For all categories: USCIS has confirmed use of the Dates for Filing chart for April 2026. This is the more favorable chart. Applicants should verify eligibility on the USCIS website and not wait for future bulletins on the assumption that current conditions will persist.
The structural picture
The FY2026 EB-2 movement is significant, but it is important to be precise about what it does and does not represent.
It represents the State Department managing visa allocation under artificially reduced demand. The 75-country freeze removed a substantial portion of immigrant visa applicants from the pipeline, creating surplus numbers that were redistributed.
It does not represent a reduction in the underlying backlog. The applicants frozen out of consular processing have not disappeared. Their petitions remain approved. Their priority dates remain in the queue. If and when the freeze lifts, they will return to the front of the line — many with Rest of World priority dates that predate the current India and China cutoffs.
As WR Immigration has noted, the forward movement is "completely artificial," and a "boomerang effect" is possible when restrictions affecting the 75 countries are eventually lifted. The longer the policy remains in place, the more severe the corrective action may be.
The annual cap of 140,000 employment-based visas has not changed. The 7% per-country limit has not changed. No legislation altering these structural constraints has advanced in Congress. The movement in FY2026 is a function of demand management within the existing framework — not a change to the framework itself.
Sources: U.S. Department of State Visa Bulletins for October 2025 through April 2026 (travel.state.gov); USCIS Adjustment of Status Filing Charts (uscis.gov); WR Immigration analysis of India EB-2 and EB-3 movement, February–April 2026 (wolfsdorf.com).