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Foreign nationals and their sponsoring US employers eagerly await the monthly release of the US Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin, to confirm when they will be eligible to apply for permanent residence in the US: the ultimate goal of a green card and a path to US citizenship. The April 2026 Visa Bulletin did not disappoint, announcing the welcome end of certain visa processing queues and additional other relief from visa availability backlogs, especially in the employment-based second and third preference (EB-2 and EB-3) categories.
Please see our article on the March Visa Bulletin for an explanation of priority dates and the various categories included.
In the April 2026 Visa Bulletin, for the first time in years, priority dates in certain EB-2 and EB-3 categories are now "current," indicating that there is no processing queue or other wait time to be eligible to obtain immigrant visas abroad or to adjust status to permanent residence in the United States. In addition, many other EB-2 and EB-3 categories advanced by up to a year. This significant advancement is very welcome news, especially for those in the EB-3 categories that have been backlogged for years and who are now eligible to apply for adjustment of status to permanent residence in the US without delay, including those whose cases were filed months after EB-2 and EB-3 retrogression began in May 2023, and even those for whom a petition has not yet been filed.
The April 2026 Visa Bulletin is yet another good reminder to US employers that the visa processing queues ebb and flow over time. Because the popular EB-2 and EB-3 categories encompass a wide range of sponsored professions – from software developers to teachers to engineers to registered nurses – there is good reason to expect that their processing queues will continue to retrogress and advance over the years. US employers are urged to continue sponsoring foreign nationals and trust the process, because sometimes there will not be a processing queue at all.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
