No good news for Indian H-1B and green card hopefuls as the US visa bulletin for May 2025 mentions retrogression for the EB-5 category for Indians. India will face a retrogression in the EB-5 Unreserved category moving to May 1, 2019 while China remains on January 22, 2014.
“High demand and number use by India in the EB-5 unreserved visa categories, combined with increased Rest of World demand and number use, made it necessary to further retrogress the India final action date to hold number use within the maximum allowed under the FY-2025 annual limits,” the bulletin said.
“Please note that it may also become necessary to establish a final action date for Rest of World countries if demand and number use continues to increase. This situation will be continually monitored, and any necessary adjustments will be made accordingly,” it said.
There is no change for the EB-1 and EB-2 categories. For EB-1, India will remain at February 15, 2022, and China will remain at November 8, 2022. All other countries will continue to be current. For the EB-2, India will remain at January 1, 2013, and China will remain at October 1, 2020. All other countries will remain at June 22, 2023.
In the EB-3 category, India will advance by two weeks, to April 15, 2013, and China will remain at November 1, 2020. All other countries will remain at January 1, 2023.
The Department of State provides a monthly Visa Bulletin that includes the cut-off dates for visa availability. It determines which applicants are eligible to submit for adjustment of status and which are eligible for permanent residency. Applicants with a priority date before the cut-off date stated in the most recent Visa Bulletin are eligible to apply for permanent residency.
The fiscal year 2025 limit for family-sponsored preference immigrants determined in accordance with Section 201 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) is 226,000. The worldwide level for annual employment-based preference immigrants is at least 140,000. Section 202 prescribes that the per-country limit for preference immigrants is set at 7% of the total annual family-sponsored and employment-based preference limits, i.e., 25,620. The dependent area limit is set at 2%, or 7,320.
