August 2026 Visa Bulletin: What Moved, and What It Means for You

The Short Version

On the family side, August is a good month for the worldwide queues. F1 (adult unmarried children of citizens) gained five and a half months for most of the world, F2B (adult unmarried children of green card holders) gained seven, F3 gained three, and F4 gained three and a half. F2A remains current everywhere. The Mexico, India, and Philippines queues, as usual, saw little or none of that movement.

On the employment side, the story is restraint. EB-3 professionals and Other Workers advanced a month for most countries, EB-4 advanced a month across the board, and EB-1 China gained a single month. EB-2 stayed frozen everywhere it was already backlogged — and for India, both EB-2 and EB-5 unreserved remain marked Unavailable, meaning no visa numbers at all this month.

Family-Sponsored Categories

F1 — Unmarried Adult Children of U.S. Citizens

F2A — Spouses and Minor Children of Green Card Holders

F2B — Unmarried Adult Children of Green Card Holders

F3 — Married Children of U.S. Citizens

F4 — Siblings of U.S. Citizens

Employment-Based Categories

EB-1 — Priority Workers

EB-2 — Advanced Degrees and Exceptional Ability

EB-3 — Skilled Workers and Professionals

EB-3 — Other Workers

EB-4 — Special Immigrants

EB-5 — Immigrant Investors (Unreserved)

Reading Your Own Case Into These Tables

Your place in line is your priority date — generally the day your immigrant petition was filed with USCIS or, where a PERM labor certification was required first, the day the Department of Labor accepted it. If your priority date is earlier than the cut-off listed for your category and country of chargeability, a visa number is available to you under that chart. "Current" means no backlog at all; "Unavailable" means the annual supply for that category and country is exhausted until the new fiscal year begins in October.

Two patterns in this bulletin are worth a moment. First, the worldwide family queues are moving while the oversubscribed countries mostly are not — a reminder that chargeability, not just category, decides your wait. Second, the freeze in EB-2 India and EB-5 India is a fiscal-year supply problem, and October bulletins often bring resets. If your priority date is close to a cut-off, this is the season to have your adjustment of status paperwork assembled so you can file the moment your date comes within reach.

A Note for Researchers and Advanced-Degree Professionals

EB-2 remains current for most of the world, which means an approved EB-2 National Interest Waiver can move from petition to green card with no visa-number wait at all for applicants not chargeable to India or China. We recently wrote about an NIW approval for an education-policy researcher that went from filing to approval in under seven months under premium processing. For backlogged countries, category strategy matters more: a stronger record may support EB-1A, where the India and China queues, while real, are years shorter than EB-2.