On the visa bulletin, the EB-1 date for mainland China (first preference: extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, multinational executives) has been stuck at July 1, 2023 since July. It hasn't moved. Yet in mid-September, an applicant with a March 2023 priority date asked USCIS why their case still wasn't approved. USCIS replied: there are no visa numbers available in your category right now, so your case is on hold until numbers become available.
The date is clearly current, so how can there be no visa numbers? This article explains it in the simplest terms, then covers what happens after October 1.
The bottom line: the date on the visa bulletin and the number of visas that can actually be issued are two different things. Even if the date doesn't move, the visa numbers can run out first. When they run out, your case isn't denied, just put on hold. On October 1, the new year's numbers arrive and USCIS picks up where it left off. You don't need to refile anything.
What happened
This comes from a September 14 post on a Chinese-language immigration forum. The poster filed under EB-1B (outstanding professor or researcher) with a March 2023 priority date. In November 2025, the poster and their spouse filed I-485s together (the Application to Adjust Status, the form you use to get a green card from inside the US). Later, both cases were transferred to the New York office, and the spouse's EAD and advance parole were approved. In July, the poster's green card was approved, but the spouse's wasn't.
In early September, the poster asked a member of Congress for help with an inquiry. Ten days later, the congressional office forwarded a reply from the USCIS New York office. In substance, it said that the date for the applicant's category in the State Department's visa bulletin had retrogressed or was unavailable, that there were currently no visa numbers available to adjust the applicant's status, and that the application was therefore being held in abeyance until a visa number becomes available.
In the replies, someone said they had asked the USCIS online help desk and got nearly the same answer: your priority date is current, but the State Department hasn't allocated a visa number to you. Another poster described an almost identical experience and is also waiting.
The original poster asked three questions: Is USCIS just making things up? Have China's EB-1 visa numbers run out? Is the visa bulletin about to retrogress? We answer them one by one below.
Why doesn't a current date on the visa bulletin mean a visa number is available?
Think of it as a line at the bank.
The visa bulletin is the display board at the door that tells you "which number is being served now." Once your number is called, you can walk up to the window. But to actually handle your business, the teller needs some of "today's quota." That quota is issued once a year, with a separate allotment for each country and each category, and every one used means one fewer left.
Here is how the law sets it up: there is an annual cap on the total number of green cards, each country can get at most 7% of the total, and each category gets its own share on top of that. Each month, when the State Department publishes the visa bulletin, it is splitting these caps up by month and estimating how far down the line it can go that month. But the bulletin is an estimate made at the start of the month, and the annual cap is a hard limit. The September 2026 visa bulletin contains a key sentence:
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.
"No further requests for numbers would be honored" refers to USCIS asking the State Department for visa numbers. The last step before USCIS approves a green card is requesting a visa number from the State Department on your behalf, and USCIS can only approve once the State Department provides one. USCIS's own Policy Manual puts it plainly:
In most cases, an immigrant visa must be available at the time of filing the adjustment application and at the time of final adjudication, if approved.
In practice, that means a visa number must be available both when you file the I-485 and when USCIS approves it, and final approval can only be completed once a visa number has been requested and the State Department has agreed to it.
So this is what happens: the number on the display board hasn't changed, but the window has already handed out its whole quota. The State Department can simply stop issuing numbers without having to change the date on the board. When USCIS's letter says "retrogressed or unavailable," that is boilerplate. Applied to this case, it's the second half that fits.
Why was the poster approved but not the spouse?
Because visa numbers are counted per person, not one per family. A spouse and children go through the same category as the principal applicant, but each person takes up a separate number.
When the poster was approved in July, USCIS got a number for them. The spouse's case reached the final step a few months later, and by the time USCIS requested a number, the State Department had stopped issuing numbers for this category and this country. Those few months made the difference. It has nothing to do with how strict the review was or how good the paperwork was. It only depends on whether there was quota left at the moment the number was requested.
When a principal is approved but a dependent isn't at the end of the fiscal year, this is usually the reason.
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Have China's EB-1 visa numbers really run out?
There's no official statement, and we can't speak for the government. Here are the three things we can point to:
First, the State Department's own warning. The September visa bulletin had a paragraph specifically about EB-1 India, saying demand in that category is heavy and it may be made unavailable before the end of the fiscal year. The same bulletin did not name China.
Second, our data. The EB-1 date for mainland China was still at December 22, 2022 in October 2025, then moved forward steadily: two months in one jump in July, another month in August, reaching July 1, 2023, with no movement in September. It moved forward more than six months in one year, so it's natural that usage went up. When someone in the replies said "two months in July and another month in August was already more than anyone expected," this is what they meant.
Third, two opposite claims on the forum. Some say they haven't seen many EB-1 approvals recently and think the numbers are used up; others say they saw someone get a card just the day before. The two contradict each other, and we don't rely on either.
Putting it together, the safest statement is: this case shows that by September, the State Department had stopped issuing (at least some) EB-1 China numbers. Whether the whole category has been shut off won't be clear until the October visa bulletin and the approvals that follow.
What happens after October 1?
October 1 is the first day of the new fiscal year. Visa numbers for every category are reset, and the window has quota again.
As for cases on hold, the USCIS Policy Manual covers that too:
If an officer encounters a case in which a visa was available at time of filing but is not available at time of final adjudication, the case should be retained, pre-processed, and adjudicated up to the point of final approval.
In plain English: the case won't be denied and you don't need to refile. USCIS reviews it until the only thing missing is a visa number, and approves it once the number comes. For these applicants, there are two things to watch next:
- The EB-1 China date in the October visa bulletin. As long as it isn't earlier than your priority date, USCIS can request a number for you again.
- When USCIS requests the number. There's no set timeline for this step. In past years, people have often talked about a "green card wave" in October, meaning a burst of approvals for cases stuck at the end of the fiscal year once new numbers arrive. Many people on the forums have observed this, but we don't have our own data to show how common it is, so we note it only as something people say.
There is one counterexample to keep in mind: if the October visa bulletin moves the EB-1 China date back to before your priority date, that is true retrogression, and your case will keep waiting until the date passes you again. As of today, no official signal points in that direction. The State Department's September warning was about India, not China.
Which forum claims hold up?
"USCIS is just talking nonsense." No. The letter is boilerplate, but the "no visa numbers" half is true in this case, backed by the bulletin's own line: once an annual limit is reached, "it would be necessary to immediately make the preference category 'unavailable'."
"Didn't they say there were so many visa numbers this year they couldn't use them all?" That's a different question. Whether the worldwide total has been used up and whether China, as one country, has hit its own cap in EB-1 as one category are two separate questions. Each country's 7% is counted separately. China hitting the cap in EB-1 doesn't stop other countries from still having numbers left.
"Going to your member of Congress wastes public resources." That's a personal opinion, not a rule. Under the rules, a congressional inquiry can only get you the case status. It can't make USCIS approve a case without a visa number. What the congressional office did in this case was get a sentence that clearly explained the reason, which was more useful than the online help desk's boilerplate reply.
"Just wait for October." Broadly right, as long as the October visa bulletin doesn't retrogress.
What you can do now
- If you got a reply like this: you don't need to refile any forms or get a new medical exam on your own. While the case is on hold, an EAD and advance parole that have already been approved remain valid as usual.
- If the principal applicant was approved and the spouse is on hold: the principal's green card is not affected.
- If you want to know how many people are ahead of you: there are 14,101 principal applicants from mainland China in EB-1 with an approved I-140 still waiting for visa numbers (USCIS data from June 2026, not counting spouses and children). The full table broken down by category and country of birth is on our backlog page.
- When the visa bulletin comes out, check the EB-1 China date first. Our visa bulletin page updates within minutes of publication. For why the October visa bulletin is late, see this article.
- To see what people are predicting for EB-1 China in October, more than three hundred people have already voted in our prediction poll.
Sources: Immigration and Nationality Act Section 201 (annual worldwide limits), Section 202 (7% per-country limit) and Section 203 (allocation by category, and spouses and children accompanying the principal); State Department September 2026 Visa Bulletin, Section A, item 1, and Section E; USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 7, Part A, Chapter 6, Section C; a September 14, 2026 post and replies on a Chinese-language immigration forum; this site's historical visa bulletin data. The quotations are based on the English originals. Forum content reflects personal experience, not official information.
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