October 2026 Visa Bulletin: EB-5 Reserved Stays Current for Every Country as India Unreserved Reopens Backlogged

The October 2026 Visa Bulletin is out, and it opens a new chapter — this is the first bulletin of fiscal year 2027. The U.S. Department of State published it later than usual: the edition sat as "Coming Soon" on the official page well past its normal mid-month timing before landing around September 28–29, the latest an October bulletin has appeared in years. But the headline for Beyond's investors is unchanged and, if anything, sharper. Every EB-5 Reserved category — Rural, High Unemployment Area, and Infrastructure — is Current for every country on both charts, while EB-5 Unreserved India has merely reopened from "Unavailable" to a deeply backlogged Final Action Date. The fiscal-year reset changes the calendar; it does not change the thesis.

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The Bottom Line

For an investor deciding how to secure U.S. permanent residency, the October 2026 EB-5 visa bulletin says one thing clearly: the Reserved categories are the fastest, open lane. Rural, High Unemployment Area, and Infrastructure are all marked Current for every country of chargeability — including India and China — on both the Final Action Dates chart and the Dates for Filing chart. By contrast, EB-5 Unreserved India did not "become current"; it reopened from Unavailable to a Final Action Date of December 1, 2023 (Dates for Filing of May 1, 2024), which is a roughly three-year backlog, and China's unreserved category remains years back as well. With the September 30, 2026 grandfathering deadline now one day away, the strategic question is not whether the door is open — it is whether you file a complete I-526E through the Reserved lane in time. Our rural TEA project, Beyond Paradise 1 on Hawaii Island, sits squarely in that Current lane.

1. What the October 2026 Visa Bulletin Says for EB-5

The October bulletin is a fresh fiscal year, so a new annual pool of employment-based visas resets on October 1. That reset is the reason India's unreserved category could reopen at all after going Unavailable at the close of FY2026. It is also why the Reserved categories, which sit on their own dedicated allocations, remain Current across the board. The two EB-5 charts below use only the figures we have verified against this bulletin; any cell we could not verify to the exact date is flagged accordingly.

Chart A — EB-5 Final Action Dates (October 2026)

Chart B — EB-5 Dates for Filing (October 2026)

On both Chart A and Chart B, all three EB-5 Reserved set-asides show Current for every country in October 2026. There is no priority-date wait to file into Rural, High Unemployment Area, or Infrastructure today. Always confirm which chart USCIS has designated for I-485 Adjustment of Status filings for the month before you file.

2. The FY2027 Reset: India Unreserved Reopened — but This Is Not Relief

If you followed our June 2026 Visa Bulletin coverage, this needs reconciling. India's EB-5 Unreserved category was still listed with a cutoff earlier in fiscal year 2026, but demand exhausted India's per-country share of the unreserved pool, and the category was marked Unavailable through September 30. That is a within-fiscal-year event. When FY2027 began, the annual supply reset, and the category reopened — but it reopened at a Final Action Date of December 1, 2023, not at Current. In plain terms: the calendar rolled over, a new allotment appeared, and India-born investors in the unreserved category are looking at roughly a three-year wait rather than an open lane.

This is exactly the dynamic we have flagged before. The unreserved category is the volatile one — it can advance, retrogress, or go unavailable as demand and supply move against each other. When employment-based India tightens elsewhere, investors who need certainty look at the categories that do not swing. That is the argument we made in EB-2 India Unavailable in 2026: the EB-5 Reserved alternative, and October 2026 reinforces it: a reopened-but-backlogged unreserved number is a reset, not relief.

3. Why EB-5 Reserved Remains the Open Door

The EB-5 Reserved categories were created by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 to give rural, high-unemployment, and infrastructure projects their own dedicated slices of the annual visa supply — 20% for Rural, 10% for High Unemployment Area, and 2% for Infrastructure. Because those allocations are ring-fenced and unused reserved visas roll forward, the Reserved lanes have stayed Current bulletin after bulletin, even as unreserved numbers lurched. Our April 2026 EB-5 Visa Bulletin analysis showed the same split — China moved in the unreserved column while every reserved category held Current — and October 2026 extends the pattern into the new fiscal year.

For investors with capital ready, three practical consequences follow. First, there is no priority-date wait to file into Reserved Rural today, from any country. Second, USCIS is directed to prioritize adjudication of I-526E petitions tied to Rural projects, which has produced approvals measured in months rather than years for several 2025–2026 filers. Third, because Reserved is Current, an investor already in the United States on a valid nonimmigrant status can file I-485, I-765 (EAD), and I-131 (Advance Parole) concurrently with the I-526E. This is why a rural TEA project such as Beyond Paradise 1 — I-956F approved, on Hawaii's Big Island, with a documented seven-month I-526E approval for one investor — is sitting in precisely the lane the October bulletin shows wide open.

4. China and the Rest of the Unreserved Picture

China's EB-5 Unreserved category advanced this cycle, with a Dates for Filing cutoff of March 1, 2021 — forward movement, but still years behind Current. Chinese-born investors reading the October bulletin face the same conclusion as their Indian counterparts: the unreserved column is a multi-year queue, while the Reserved column is open now. All-other-country demand in the unreserved category remains Current. For context beyond EB-5, EB-1 India advanced on the Dates for Filing chart to roughly July 1, 2024 — helpful at the margins for a narrow set of extraordinary-ability and multinational-executive filers, but no substitute for an open EB-5 Reserved lane for the far larger pool of professionals and their families.

5. The Backdrop: H-1B Cost Pressure and a Deadline One Day Away

The bulletin does not arrive in a vacuum. Two H-1B developments are reshaping how skilled professionals — especially Indian tech talent — weigh their options. The $100,000 H-1B proclamation was vacated by a U.S. District Court in June 2026 as an unlawful tax and remains blocked and unenforceable after the First Circuit declined to stay that ruling in July 2026; the President re-extended it by proclamation on September 18, 2026 through September 21, 2027, though it stays unenforceable while the court order stands. Separately — and on top of that — the Department of Homeland Security has published a proposed rule that would add a fee of roughly $103,265 to cap-subject new H-1B petitions; its 30-day public comment period closed September 24, 2026, and if finalized it would apply to the 2027 cap season. It is still a proposal, not law. Together, these signals push more professionals to look for a residency path that is not tied to an employer or a lottery — and the October bulletin shows that path is EB-5 Reserved.

The timing pressure is immediate. The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act's grandfathering provision protects I-526E petitions filed on or before September 30, 2026 against a future program lapse, and the program is authorized through September 30, 2027. As of this bulletin, that grandfathering deadline is one day away. As independent evidence that Hawaii's for-sale luxury market is deep and real, note that on September 28, 2026 an unaffiliated developer broke ground on two Ward Village towers in Honolulu on Oahu totaling roughly 369 residences, reported as about 60% pre-sold — a different island, developer, and product than Beyond Paradise 1, but a useful third-party data point on demand.

Summary: October 2026 Visa Bulletin, EB-5 at a Glance

The Bottom Line: The October 2026 visa bulletin, the first of FY2027, confirms the pattern that has held all year. EB-5 Reserved Rural, High Unemployment Area, and Infrastructure are Current for every country, while EB-5 Unreserved India reopened only to a Dec 1, 2023 backlog and China's unreserved number sits years back. For an investor with capital ready, the fiscal-year reset does not reopen the debate — it settles it. The open, current door is Reserved Rural.

Ready to file before the deadline? Our team will review your timeline, your source-of-funds documentation, and your filing plan, and show you what a complete Reserved-lane I-526E looks like for your specific case.

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This article is for general educational purposes only and is not legal, immigration, tax, or investment advice, nor an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any security. Visa Bulletin dates change monthly and are set by the U.S. Department of State; always confirm the current figures and the chart designated for Adjustment of Status against the official bulletin. EB-5 investments involve risk, including possible loss of capital and the risk of petition denial. Any investment is made solely through the official offering documents and is limited to qualified investors. Consult a qualified immigration attorney and your own financial advisors before acting.