Blog by Pasricha & Patel, LLC

USCIS Sets September 2025 Adjustment of Status Filing Charts for the Visa Bulletin

Categories: Employment-Based Visa , Family-Based Visa , Immigration , USCIS , Visa Bulletin

Sheetal A. Patel of Pasricha & Patel, LLC, explains the adjustment of status filing charts for the Visa Bulletin

https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-processes-and-procedures/visa-availability-priority-dates/when-to-file-your-adjustment-of-status-application-for-family-sponsored-or-employment-based-116

With the U.S. Department of State (“DOS”)’s publication of its September 2025 visa bulletin, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has decided to continue to use the Final Action Dates for Employment-Based Adjustment of Status Applications (Chart A).  Meanwhile, USCIS has decided to continue to follow the Dates for Filing for Family-Sponsored Adjustment of Status Applications table (Chart B).  Please refer to the sections below for specific discussions about the visa availability date movements and trends under both the employment-based immigrant visa petitions, as well as the family-based immigrant visa petitions.  In the meantime, EB-4 preference category remains ‘unavailable’, and will remain that way for the rest of fiscal year 2025. And in the EB-5 preference category, there was no forward movement this month when compared to the August 2025 visa bulletin, which saw meaningful movement ahead for both India and China.  This was because of the recapture of some unused family sponsored preference numbers that could fall down for use in the employment-based categories, including the EB-5 unreserved category. 

But note that U.S. Department of State also warned that if the annual limit in the employment-based vias categories were reached at any time during this month – and the U.S. Department of State fully expects it to reach FY-2025 category limits in most employment-based preference categories during August and September – then it would be necessary to immediately make the preference category “unavailable’, and no further requests for visa numbers will be honored.  So, all categories of the employment-based visa categories certainly needs to be closely monitored this month and in September. 

Employment-based Immigrant Visa Categories:

  • As has been the case for the last few years, USCIS and the Department of State are doing their best to manage the demand and usage of employment visa numbers, while fully recognizing that there is overwhelming demand, which resulted in the visa numbers in this category being exhausted and used up in late August to early September of 2024 in the last fiscal year.  Just like last fiscal year, the Department of State does expect visa numbers to be used up before the end of the fiscal year.

USCIS is keeping the use of the Final Action Dates for Employment-Based Adjustment of Status Applications (chart A) and accepting applications in all employment-based categories based on actual visa availability.  This continues to be clear indication to those applicants who have been waiting for quite some time to see hardly any meaningful movements in the visa categories.  It means the USCIS will need time to catch up first and process all the I-485 adjustment of status applications that were filed with USCIS in the most recent few months.  It should be noted that for the month of September, there were no movements in the visa dates when compared to the August 2025 visa bulletin.

  • Employment-based first preference category (EB-1) (in the Final Action Dates table):
    • There are no movements in the EB-1 cutoff dates for September 2025.  For India, the visa availability date remains on February 15, 2022. 
    • China’s visa cutoff date also remained on November 15, 2022. 
    • Meanwhile, for ‘World’, and Mexico, and Philippines, EB-1 continues to be Current/Available.
  • Employment-based second preference category (EB-2)(in the Final Action Dates table):
    • The visa availability date for EB-2 for India stays on the same date on January 1, 2013.  At this juncture, it is unlikely there will be any more significant or even minor movements in the next few months of FY 2025 visa bulletin though.  In fact, according to the U.S. Department of State, this category is likely to reach its limit in August or September.  This certainly is a category that needs further monitoring.
    • For China’s visa preference category:   the visa availability date remains on December 15, 2020.  It has been on December 1, 2020 in the earlier June 2025 visa bulletin as well.
    • There was no movement in the EB-2 visa category for any of the countries when comparing to the August 2025 visa bulletin.

As already mentioned above, due to the strong demand for employment-based visas overall this past fiscal year 2024, Department of State expects most of the employment-based visa categories to hit its limit in August or September.  This is an area that certainly needs continual monitoring.

  • Employment-based third preference category (EB-3) (in the Final Action Dates table):
    • EB-3 India’s visa availability date remains on May 22, 2013 and no movement is expected for the remaining fiscal year 2024.
    • EB-3 China’s visa availability date also remains on December 1, 2020. 
    • EB-3 world’s visa availability date remains on April 1, 2023.  The same date of April 1, 2023 is shown for Mexico too.  Meanwhile, Philippines’ EB-3 date also remained on February 8, 2023.   
    • In the EB-3 Other Workers (EW) category, there was no movement for any of the visa numbers.  India remained on May 22, 2013. China’s date for EB-3 (other workers) also remained on May 1, 2017.  Mexico’s visa availability date also maintained its date of July 8, 2021.  There was no movement for the Philippines, as it remained on July 8, 2021.
    • As the Department of State has been warning this for the past year, due to high demands for all visa numbers from all regions of the world, the Department of State will continue to exercise maximum control to manage the visa number usage, even in the middle months of FY 2025.   In fact, it is forecasting that it will likely hit the limit in August or September, and that means the visa will become ‘unavailable’ due to increasing high demand.  This is a situation that needs to be monitored carefully by Department of State, and they will make any necessary adjustments as needed in the coming months.
  • Employment-based fourth preference category (EB-4):
    • On February 28, 2025, U.S. Department of State did announce that due to overwhelming demand and use throughout the first half of fiscal year 2025, it has exhausted all the visa numbers in this preference category and for the rest of the year, and there would be no visas that can be issued in these categories for the remainder of the fiscal year 2025.  The annual limits will reset with the start of the new fiscal year (FY 2026) on October 1, 2025.  So, this is certainly a drastic measure to take, but it does appear that the Department of State and the USCIS had no other choice here.
  • Employment-based fifth preference category (EB-5) (referring to the Final Action Date chart):
    • There is great demand and numbers usage by applicants in India and China.  And because of high demand, the Department of State has to maintain India’s visa availability date on November 15, 2019.  However, even the projected date is not likely to last much longer as U.S. Department of State anticipates this visa category may be come ‘unavailable’ in August or September.
    • Meanwhile, for China, its EB-5 date also remained on December 8, 2015.
    • For the other countries, and the rest of the world, the visa continues to be available for the nationals from those countries and regions.  However, the current condition is not expected to improve, and these visas are expected to become ‘unavailable’ in August or September 2025.
    • Department of State also warns that because of the overwhelming demand in this EB-5 visa category in general, there may become necessary to establish a final action date for applicants chargeable to all other countries, especially if the demand continues to grow at a rapid pace that it may become oversubscribed.  Department of States note that this situation must be carefully monitored for the upcoming months.
    • In fact, for the September 2025 visa bulletin, the Department of State is warning that if and when the visa numbers are all allotted for, then it will have to make the visa unavailable for the remaining of the fiscal year and until October 1, 2025.
    • On the EB-5 immigrant investor visa category, a reminder once again to readers that DOS’s visa bulletin for EB-5 preference category has also been updated to reflect the new provisions of the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act (RIA). 
    • It now has two (2) pools of visa numbers within the EB-5 category.  One is reserved for certain set-aside categories (Rural, High Unemployment, and Infrastructure projects), while the remaining available numbers remain ‘unreserved’.
    • Finally, in the Final Action Dates chart for EB5 Set Asides (which covers Rural, and High Unemployment, and Infrastructure areas) for Chinese born and Indian born applicants as well as applicants from around the world continue to remain ‘Current’. 

Family-based Immigrant Visa Categories (with discussions also touching on the Final Action Dates table):

  • A reminder that DOS continues to use the Dates for Filing for Family-Sponsored Adjustment of Status Applications chart. 
  • But in connection with the actual Final Action Dates table which is the actual visa availability date table to look at, and starting in June 2023, due to the steady usage of the F2A – Spouses and Children of Permanent Residents – DOS had to set a final action date for this category in order to maintain steady availability of this particular visa category for the upcoming months. 
  • So, in the Final Action Date for F-1  (unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens)– India, the date remains the same this month on July 15, 2016.  
  • As for F-2A - India for the September 2025 visa bulletin, it remains unchanged on September 1, 2022.  Other countries also did not change in the September 2025 visa bulletin:  China is on September 1, 2022, along with the rest of the world and Mexico also moved ahead to May 1, 2022.  Philippines’ date is still on September 1, 2022.
  • In the September 2025 Final Acton Dates for Family-Sponsored Preference Cases, the various regions have visa availability dates of varying cutoff dates.
  • As early as back in the August 2023 visa bulletin, the DOS had also explained that the F2B – Unmarried Son and Daughters (21 years of age or older) of Permanent Resident, is experiencing steady usage throughout the FY2023 and “it may become necessary to retrogress the final action dates for Rest of World countries, India, and China in the coming months to keep number use within the FY-2023 annual limit.”  So far, that has not happened yet.
  • In fact, for the latest September 2025 visa bulletin, U.S. Department of State has maintained dates in F2B as follows:
    • India remains the same on October 15, 2016.
    • China also remained on October 15, 2016.
    • The rest of the world also remained on October 15, 2016.
    • Mexico moved several months ahead to April 1, 2007 and the Philippines also moved slightly ahead to May 1, 2012.
  • Unlike in the July 2025 visa bulletin, there were minimal movements in the F-3 dates though (Married Sons and Daughters of U.S. citizens):
    • India – August 1, 2011
    • China – August 1, 2011
    • The rest of the world moved to August 1, 2011.
    • Mexico also moved ahead to February 1, 2001.
    • The Philippines moved ahead to May 1, 2004.
  • In the F-4 (brother and sister of U.S. citizen) category, dates also have not advanced for a while since the last major movements in May 2025.
    • India – remains on November 1, 2006
    • China – remains on January 1, 2008
    • The rest of the world remains on January 1, 2008
    • Mexico remains on March 15, 2001
    • The Philippines remains on January 1, 2006.

Even in the middle part of Fiscal Year 2025, the U.S. Department of State is still doing its best to try and keep the various employment-based visa numbers in steady movement and to not have the visa numbers be used up too quickly.  But with still high demand for these visas, Department of State will continue to be cautious in how it sets its monthly visa number goals.

With only a few months left in fiscal year 2025, the Department of State has also announced that due to continuing high demand of these types of visas, it is unlike we would see India have any steady movements in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories in the coming months, and the expectation is that visa numbers will become unavailable as soon as August or September.  But it will also be important to keep track of how USCIS decides to either use Dates of Filing or Final Action Dates table as we move towards the start of FY2026 and through the upcoming final month of Fiscal Year 2025.

For this key reason, we do encourage readers to check in this space regularly for any further updates.

Pasricha & Patel’s Immigration Department has extensive experience in handling business and personal immigration matters. Our team is happy to speak with you on your specific issue.

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