Visa Bulletin for Nurses — July 2026: What Nurses Who Need Visas Should Do

USCIS is using the Final Action Dates chart for employment-based green card filings in July, the third month running. That single choice matters more than any of the headline numbers below, because it's the chart that decides who can actually submit paperwork this month, not the friendlier one printed next to it. Rest of World and Mexico EB-3 cutoffs jumped two months to August 1, 2024. China jumped almost five months to December 22, 2021. India crept forward two weeks to January 1, 2014. The Philippines sat flat at August 1, 2023, again, with a State Department warning attached. Here's what actually moved, and what to do about it this month.

What moved, country by country

The table below is the Final Action Dates chart only. That's the chart USCIS is applying to I-485 adjustment-of-status filings in July, so it's the one that determines whether a nurse's case can move, not the Dates for Filing chart in the last column.

• Chargeability · June 2026 Final Action · July 2026 Final Action · Change · July Dates for Filing
• Rest of World & Mexico · 06/01/2024 · 08/01/2024 · +2 months · Current
• China · 08/01/2021 · 12/22/2021 · +4 mo, 21 days · 01/01/2022
• India · 12/15/2013 · 01/01/2014 · +17 days · 01/15/2015
• Philippines · 08/01/2023 · 08/01/2023 · No change · 01/01/2024

Two things worth pulling out that a quick monthly recap tends to bury. First, the Dates for Filing chart, the one that lets you submit early paperwork before a visa number is technically available, didn't move at all between June and July. China held at January 1, 2022. India held at January 15, 2015. The Philippines held at January 1, 2024. USCIS could have let applicants file against that friendlier chart this month; it didn't, so treat Dates for Filing as background reading in July, not your filing rule.

Second, the State Department's own bulletin narrative flags a real risk under the Philippines row: demand and number use in that category are running high enough that it could retrogress, or go fully unavailable, before the fiscal year ends. That's not boilerplate. If you're Philippine-chargeable and current now, treat July as a window, not a guarantee that holds through August.

If your employer is sponsoring an LPN rather than an RN, check the EB-3 Other Workers row instead, since it runs on its own, generally slower, schedule: China April 1, 2019; India January 1, 2014; Philippines December 1, 2021; all other countries March 1, 2022. For an LPN from China or the Philippines specifically, that's meaningfully behind the RN chart above.

What to do this month, by situation

Split this into two groups, because the useful move is different for each.

You already have a priority date. Check your country's Final Action Date against your I-140 priority date, not the date you filed. If your date is now on or before the July cutoff, don't sit on it: talk to your immigration attorney this week about submitting or completing adjustment of status, especially if you're Philippine-chargeable given the retrogression warning above. If your date isn't current yet, there's nothing new to file this month. Use the wait productively. Keep your I-140 approval, I-693 medical exam, and state license paperwork current so the month your date finally clears isn't also the month you're scrambling for documents.

You're still shopping for a sponsor. Nursing sits on the Department of Labor's Schedule A shortage occupation list, which lets a rural employer skip the PERM labor certification step entirely and file the I-140 directly, cutting 6 to 18 months off the front of a process most other EB-3 occupations still have to run. That's why a critical access hospital or nursing home under staffing pressure can often move faster on your case than a metro system waiting on a labor market test. Confirm the listing reflects a real, filed sponsorship rather than a staffing agency's static "we sponsor" claim with no open role behind it. Then start CGFNS VisaScreen, or the NCLEX pathway if you haven't sat it yet, in parallel. Licensure runs on its own clock and it's usually the longer of the two waits, so don't let it sit idle while you wait on the visa side.

Rural jobs sponsoring right now

18 EB-3-sponsored nursing roles are open on JibJob today. Start with the full list at EB-3 nursing jobs rather than a static sponsor directory, since it shows roles a facility is actually hiring for right now. If you already know your target region, narrow by state, for example North Dakota rural nursing jobs. Once an offer is real, licensure is the next gate, not the visa. Check your state's endorsement and compact timeline on the days-to-bedside guide before you assume the priority date is the only clock running. For the fuller walkthrough of how EB-3 sponsorship works end to end, the rural nurse visa sponsorship hub covers country-specific timelines and what to prepare before you talk to an employer.

What's next

The August 2026 Visa Bulletin had not been released as of this post's publish date. The State Department typically posts each edition in the second or third week of the prior month; check travel.state.gov directly, or come back here, since this series updates within 48 hours of every new release.

FAQ

What's the difference between Dates for Filing and Final Action Dates? Dates for Filing tells you when a visa number is expected to become available soon enough to submit early paperwork. Final Action Dates is the harder gate: the date your priority date must clear before USCIS will actually approve the green card. USCIS picks one chart to govern each month's employment-based adjustment filings, and it has chosen Final Action Dates for May, June, and July 2026.

Has the August 2026 Visa Bulletin come out yet? Not as of this post's publish date. It's typically released in the second or third week of the prior month; this series updates within 48 hours of release.

My priority date was current, then it wasn't. What happened? That's retrogression: when demand in a category outpaces the annual visa cap, the State Department moves the cutoff backward, sometimes to "unavailable." A case already filed stays filed; USCIS pauses final adjudication until the date clears again. It's exactly the risk flagged for Philippines EB-3 this month.

Sources

U.S. Department of State, Visa Bulletin for July 2026 and Visa Bulletin for June 2026 (travel.state.gov, accessed Jul 14, 2026); USCIS, Adjustment of Status Filing Charts from the Visa Bulletin; independent analysis cross-checked against Fragomen, Tafapolsky & Smith, Fisher Phillips, Gibney Anthony & Flaherty, and Morgan Lewis (all accessed Jul 14, 2026).