Immigration Lawyer Blog
October 1 can change everything for green card applicants stuck in the immigrant visa backlog. With the start of the new fiscal year, a fresh supply of immigrant visa numbers becomes available—and applicants who are ready can move fast when their priority dates become current. If your case is close, the time to prepare is before October 1, not after.
If you are from India, China, the Philippines, or Mexico, you may already be familiar with the effects of high demand and limited immigrant visa availability. For example, the EB-2 category for India has been unavailable for final action since July 2026 because of heavy demand. On the family-sponsored side, countries such as India and Mexico have also faced significant backlogs as visa demand has outpaced the number of available visas.
While demand from these countries is expected to remain high, the October 1 fiscal-year reset brings a new annual supply of immigrant visa numbers, which can allow more applicants to move forward with interviews and final visa issuance.
In this video, we break down what you need to know—and what you should do now—to put yourself in the strongest position before October 1.
What Is the End-of-Year Fiscal Reset?
The U.S. government’s fiscal year runs from October 1 through September 30, and many employment- and family-based immigrant visa categories are subject to annual numerical limits set by Congress.
Except for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, applicants generally must wait until an immigrant visa number becomes available based on their priority date and country of nationality before they can be scheduled for an interview and ultimately receive an immigrant visa.
When the new fiscal year begins on October 1, those annual visa limits reset, allowing the government to begin using a new supply of immigrant visa numbers.
For applicants stuck in backlogged categories like EB-2 India and F2A Mexico, this reset is especially important because the allocation of new visa numbers creates new opportunities for eligible applicants to move forward in the green card process.