January 9th, 2026. A Thursday evening in the Bay Area. David Chen is scrolling through his phone in the parking lot of a Korean grocery store, waiting for his wife to finish shopping. The immigration WeChat group is buzzing. Someone just posted: "February排期出了."
David is an EB-1A applicant from Beijing. His priority date is March 15, 2023. He has been checking the visa bulletin every month like checking a stocks app — a reflex born from three years of waiting. Last month, the final action date for China EB-1 was January 1, 2023. Now it shows February 1, 2023.
One month. Thirty-one days. Just enough to let him file his adjustment of status application — finally.
Meanwhile, across the country in a Philadelphia apartment, Priya Sharma is doing the same math but getting different results. Her EB-2 priority date is September 2013. The India EB-2 final action date shows July 15, 2013. She is 72 days away. She has been 72 days away for — she loses count. Thirteen years of waiting. Thirteen years of watching the line creep forward by months, sometimes by weeks, occasionally standing still.
What Actually Moved in February 2026
The February 2026 visa bulletin, released on January 9th, brought employment-based movement that caught many practitioners by surprise. While the H-1B cap season dominated headlines with its lottery drama and multiple registration rounds, the underlying visa number dynamics told a quieter — but significant — story.
For China EB-1: The final action date advanced from January 1, 2023 to February 1, 2023 — a one-month movement that, for applicants like David, meant the difference between staying in holding pattern and being able to file.
For India EB-1: The same movement occurred, from January 1, 2023 to February 1, 2023. This follows a pattern observed since late 2025 — consistent but modest monthly advances that reflect the steady consumption of available visa numbers.
For China EB-2: The final action date held steady at September 1, 2021. No movement. For India EB-2: No movement either, remaining at July 15, 2013 — essentially frozen since early 2022.
For EB-3 China: Movement from April 1, 2021 to May 1, 2021. For EB-3 India: From November 1, 2013 to November 15, 2013 — a two-week crawl that amounts to meaningful progress for those at the frontier of the queue.
