Bulletin archive

September 2025 Visa Bulletin

Effective September 1, 2025 · Fiscal Year 2025
Source: archived HTML
Data verified August 24, 2026

Your line

Across the whole bulletin
9moved
0retrogressed
141held
Bulletin day

What changed in the September 2025 bulletin

  1. F3 the PhilippinesF3, the Philippines: advanced 5 months+5mCutoff now May 1, 2004.
  2. F2B MexicoF2B, Mexico: advanced 3 months+3mCutoff now April 1, 2007.
  3. F2B the PhilippinesF2B, the Philippines: advanced 2 weeks+2wCutoff now May 1, 2012.
13 categories unchanged · Final action dates · how stamps are judged

In brief

The September 2025 bulletin’s biggest family move: F3 for the Philippines advances 5 months. 5 other family categories hold unchanged. Employment-based final action dates hold.

For issuance of Green Cards
Primary source

From the Department’s notes for September 2025

5 sections, reproduced verbatim from the U.S. Department of State’s September 2025 Visa Bulletin. The Department’s words, not ours.

A. STATUTORY NUMBERS FOR PREFERENCE IMMIGRANT VISASThis bulletin summarizes the availability of immigrant numbers during September for: “Final Action Dates” and “Dates…

This bulletin summarizes the availability of immigrant numbers during September for: “Final Action Dates” and “Dates for Filing Applications,” indicating when immigrant visa applicants should be notified to assemble and submit required documentation to the National Visa Center.

Unless otherwise indicated on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website at

www.uscis.gov/visabulletininfo , individuals seeking to file applications for adjustment of status with USCIS must use the “Final Action Dates” charts below for determining when they can file such applications. When USCIS determines that there are more immigrant visas available for the fiscal year than there are known applicants for such visas, USCIS will state on its website that applicants may instead use the “Dates for Filing Visa Applications” charts in this Bulletin.

1. Procedures for determining dates. Consular officers are required to report to the Department of State documentarily qualified applicants for numerically limited visas; USCIS reports applicants for adjustment of status. Allocations in the charts below were made, to the extent possible, in chronological order of reported priority dates, for demand received by August 4th . If not all demand could be satisfied, the category or foreign state in which demand was excessive was deemed oversubscribed. The final action date for an oversubscribed category is the priority date of the first applicant who could not be reached within the numerical limits. If it becomes necessary during the monthly allocation process to retrogress a final action date, supplemental requests for numbers will be honored only if the priority date falls within the new final action date announced in this bulletin. If at any time an annual limit were reached, it would be necessary to immediately make the preference category “unavailable”, and no further requests for numbers would be honored.

2. The fiscal year 2025 limit for family-sponsored preference immigrants determined in accordance with Section 201 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) is 226,000. The worldwide level for annual employment-based preference immigrants is 150,037. Section 202 prescribes that the per-country limit for preference immigrants is set at 7% of the total annual family-sponsored and employment-based preference limits, i.e., 25,620. The dependent area limit is set at 2%, or 7,521.

3. INA Section 203(e) provides that family-sponsored and employment-based preference visas be issued to eligible immigrants in the order in which a petition in behalf of each has been filed. Section 203(d) provides that spouses and children of preference immigrants are entitled to the same status, and the same order of consideration, if accompanying or following to join the principal. The visa prorating provisions of Section 202(e) apply to allocations for a foreign state or dependent area when visa issuances will exceed the per-country limit. These provisions apply at present to the following oversubscribed chargeability areas: CHINA-mainland born, INDIA, MEXICO, and PHILIPPINES.

4. Section 203(a) of the INA prescribes preference classes for allotment of Family-sponsored immigrant visas as follows:

FAMILY-SPONSORED PREFERENCES

First : ( F1 ) Unmarried Sons and Daughters of U.S. Citizens: 23,400 plus any numbers not required for fourth preference.

Second : Spouses and Children, and Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Permanent Residents: 114,200, plus the number (if any) by which the worldwide family preference level exceeds 226,000, plus any unused first preference numbers:

A. ( F2A ) Spouses and Children of Permanent Residents: 77% of the overall second preference limitation, of which 75% are exempt from the per-country limit;

B. ( F2B ) Unmarried Sons and Daughters (21 years of age or older) of Permanent Residents: 23% of the overall second preference limitation.

Third : ( F3 ) Married Sons and Daughters of U.S. Citizens: 23,400, plus any numbers not required by first and second preferences.

Fourth : ( F4 ) Brothers and Sisters of Adult U.S. Citizens: 65,000, plus any numbers not required by first three preferences.

C. THE DIVERSITY IMMIGRANT (DV) CATEGORY RANK CUT-OFFS WHICH WILL APPLY IN OCTOBER

For October , immigrant numbers in the DV category are available to qualified DV-2026 applicants chargeable to all regions/eligible countries as follows. When an allocation cut-off number is shown, visas are available only for applicants with DV regional lottery rank numbers BELOW the specified allocation cut-off number:

Region

All DV Chargeability Areas Except

Those Listed Separately

AFRICA

17,500

Except: Algeria 14,500

Egypt 16,000

ASIA

10,000

Except: Nepal 6,000

EUROPE

7,750

NORTH AMERICA (BAHAMAS)

20

OCEANIA

1,100

SOUTH AMERICA,

and the CARIBBEAN

1,850

D. AVAILABILITY OF EMPLOYMENT-BASED VISAS

There has been a steady increase in both USCIS and Department of State demand patterns for employment-based visas during the fiscal year. As a result, the Visa Office expects to reach FY-2025 category limits in most employment-based preference categories during August and September. If at any time an annual limit were reached, it would be necessary to immediately make the preference category “unavailable”, and no further requests for numbers would be honored.

E. DETERMINATION OF THE NUMERICAL LIMITS ON IMMIGRANTS REQUIRED UNDER THE TERMS OF THE IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY ACT (INA)The State Department is required to make the determination of the worldwide numerical limitations, as outlined in…

The State Department is required to make the determination of the worldwide numerical limitations, as outlined in Section 201(c) and (d) of the INA, on an annual basis. These calculations are based in part on data provided by U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) regarding the number of immediate relative adjustments in the preceding year and the number of aliens paroled into the United States under Section 212(d)(5) in the second preceding year. Without this information, it is impossible to make an official determination of the annual limits. To avoid delays in processing while waiting for the USCIS data, the Visa Office (VO) bases allocations on reasonable estimates of the anticipated amount of visa numbers to be available under the annual limits, in accordance with Section 203(g) of the INA. On July 30th, USCIS provided the required data to the VO.

The Department of State has determined the Family and Employment preference numerical limits for FY-2025 in accordance with the terms of Section 201 of the INA. These numerical limitations for FY-2025 are as follows:

Worldwide Family-Sponsored preference limit: 226,000

Worldwide Employment-Based preference limit: 150,037

Under INA Section 202(a)(2), the per-country limit is fixed at 7% of the combined total family and employment annual limits. For FY-2025 the per-country limit is therefore 26,323. The dependent area annual limit is 2%, or 7,521. Note that these figures do not account for carryover provisions in accordance with INA 203(b)(5)(B). With these carryover visa numbers included, the per-country limit is 26,862 and the dependent area limit is 7,675.

F. U.S. GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE SPECIAL IMMIGRANT VISAS (SIVs)

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2024, signed into law on December 22, 2023, may affect certain current and former employees of the U.S. Government abroad, as well as certain surviving spouses and children of deceased employees of the U.S. government abroad, applying for SIVs or adjustment of status, as described in section 101(a)(27)(D) of the INA. This does not affect certain Iraqis and Afghans applying for SQ and SI SIVs. Applicants should contact the consular section at which they filed their Form DS‑1884 for further information on the impact of that law on their case.

Get the movement, monthly

Understanding the Two Charts

Final Action Dates

For issuance of Green Cards. If your priority date is earlier than the date shown for your category and country, a visa number is available and your case can be approved. “Current” means all priority dates are being processed; “Unavailable” means no visa numbers are authorized this month.

Dates for Filing

For submitting I-485 applications. This chart shows the earliest priority date at which you may assemble and submit documents — ahead of final action — when USCIS designates this chart as usable for the month. It lets applicants get in line earlier while waiting for a visa number.