US Green Card September bulletin: Why some Indians got no relief while family applicants did?

The September 2026 US visa bulletin revealed a perplexing situation for Indian nationals seeking Green Cards. While family-sponsored applicants experienced significant progress in obtaining their visas, those under the Employment-Based category, particularly Indians, faced a frustrating freeze. The Department of State explained that this disparity was due to separate demand patterns influencing the two distinct preference systems.

The September visa bulletin showed no uniform upward trend for employment-based immigration, as the EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, Other Workers, and EB-5 Unreserved Final Action Dates remained unchanged from August. The EB-4 and certain Religious Workers categories saw a two-month advance in final action dates. For Employment-Based visas, the August and September dates for India remained the same as the prior month.

Interestingly, family-sponsored visa categories saw substantial advancements, raising questions about the differing response patterns to demand. The State Department attributed this to heightened visa issuance rates for select nationalities following security and public safety measures. To make immigrant visas available to prospective immigrants from diverse nations, the department advanced filing and final action dates across several immigrant visa categories.

The freeze in the EB-2 visa category for Indians, due to high demand and increased use, emphasized the need for a more nuanced approach to immigration processing. As the situation unfolded, it became clear that the US immigration system was grappling with complex challenges, highlighting the need for a more equitable resolution.