The Department of State published the October 2026 Visa Bulletin late on 29 September, ending days of unusual delay and opening Fiscal Year 2027 with sharp movement in both directions. The headline win is China EB-5 unreserved, where the filing date leaps roughly four years while the final action date stays put at 1 December 2016.

India EB-5 unreserved also reopens, letting a long stalled queue move. Against that, worldwide EB-2 and EB-3 retrogress from current to fixed cutoffs to keep spending inside the new fiscal year.

USCIS has confirmed it will honour the Dates for Filing chart for all employment based adjustment applications throughout October, so Form I-485 can be lodged even where the final action date has not yet caught up.

Portugal's Law Number 62/2026, in force since 11 September, has completed its initial administrative rollout as the month closes. The law shuts the older regularisation pathway that let some undocumented foreign residents obtain status without a prior visa, and formalises a decision window for residence permit applications.

Students at secondary and Level 4 course level stay eligible for residence permits, provided they hold the required residence visa, enrolment and health cover. The law also transposes EU directives on international protection and work authorisation into Portuguese law.

IRCC ran Express Entry Draw Number 446 on 29 September, issuing 2,000 invitations to Canadian Experience Class candidates at a CRS cutoff of 518, one point below the 15 September draw. That makes three consecutive CEC draws with a falling cutoff, a clear downward path from the August peak of 523.

Scores across those seventeen rounds have run between 507 and 523. Category based draws for healthcare, trades and French language remain on the calendar for early October.

The EU's Entry Exit System reaches its first anniversary on 12 October, having gone live at Schengen external borders on that date in 2025. The phased rollout is now largely complete across land, sea and air crossings, and travellers from visa exempt third countries, India, Brazil, Argentina and the UK among them, have been recording biometrics on first entry for close to a full year.

The ETIAS travel authorisation timeline remains subject to final Commission confirmation.

The State Department confirmed the DV-2028 Diversity Visa Lottery registration window opens in early October at dvprogram.state.gov, following the standard annual cycle. The DV-2027 selection process closed on 30 September, so selectees who have not been notified through the Entrant Status Check should now assume they were not selected.

The Home Office statement of changes HC 584 takes effect at 15:00 UK time on 8 October. The main tranche covers introductory definitions, Part 1, Suitability, Appendix A, Administrative Review, and revised visitor and student provisions, with transition protection for applications lodged before that moment.

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