October 2026 I-485 Checklist: File, Hold, Track

Your October 2026 I-485 queue has two clocks: a filing date and an approval date. The first one tells you whether to submit now; the second tells you when to say the green card is done. The October 2026 Visa Bulletin is the first Visa Bulletin for fiscal year 2027. For October 2026, employment-based adjustment-of-status applicants could rely on the Dates for Filing chart rather than the Final Action Dates chart to determine I-485 filing eligibility. In October 2026, the Dates for Filing chart determines whether an I-485 may be filed and whether related EAD or advance parole eligibility exists, while Final Action Dates determine final approval.

The filing window is the first decision

Do not wait for a single all-clear answer. Submission follows the filing chart. Approval follows the Final Action Dates chart. Keep the approval date out of the filing decision. That pending state can carry real benefits: a filed I-485, plus EAD or advance parole eligibility. The queue moves unevenly by category and country. Each cycle needs a separate filing decision. The workaround is to manage the queue as a series of dated decisions, not as one approval forecast.

The employee answer stays separate

Keep the employee communication separate from the filing decision. Tell the employee what has been filed, what work authorization is pending, and what travel authorization is pending. Approval depends on a different date. Tell them that in writing. That keeps the sponsor's promise narrow and the employee's expectations accurate. The employee needs a clear answer about work and travel, not a guess about approval. The message should be short, dated, tied to the case, and reviewed by counsel.

The queue moves by category and country

For India, the October 2026 bulletin shows EB-1 moving forward by more than a year and a half, while EB-2 became available again after a prior-fiscal-year gap. China EB-3 advanced by about two years, and China EB-1 and EB-2 each advanced by about one year. Treat each category and country as its own queue for the current bulletin.

The State Department retrogressed Rest of World cutoff dates in EB-2 and EB-3 in the October 2026 Visa Bulletin to keep FY2027 visa issuances within strict quarterly and annual limits. EB-2 and EB-3 Rest of World/Mexico had filing dates of March 15, 2026 and August 1, 2024, respectively, in the October 2026 Visa Bulletin, ahead of their retrogressed final action dates. Applicants with priority dates on or before those dates can file now, even though approval is behind.

The checklist is the control point

Use the list below at the start of each filing cycle. It is built to answer the same core questions in the same order: can this case file, can the employee keep working or travel, and when can approval be expected? Keep the same order every cycle so the file shows the same logic across the whole queue each time. The first items keep the date test clean. The later items keep the approval language honest.

• Confirm the category and country before comparing any date.
• Compare the priority date with the designated Dates for Filing date for that category and country.
• File the I-485 when the priority date is on or before that filing date.
• Treat EAD and advance parole eligibility as tied to the same filing-date test.
• Hold final approval for the Final Action Date, even if the I-485 is already pending.
• If the priority date is after the filing date, keep the case in the hold queue and recheck the next bulletin.

The team should save the date comparison, the filing decision, and the approval hold in the case file. Keep the bulletin version with it. The record should be dated and case-specific. The file should be easy for another counsel to follow in the next cycle. That record shows why the case moved, why it waited, and why the employee received the work or travel request.