Outlook Business Desk
The U.S. Department of State has published the April 2025 Visa Bulletin providing key updates on employment-based (EB) immigrant visa categories.
India will experience a significant retrogression in the EB-5 Unreserved category shifting back over 2 years to November 1, 2019. China will shift back about 2 and a half years to January 22,2014. Meanwhile all other countries will remain current in this category.
The State Department stated that the EB-5 retrogression for China & India was needed due to higher demand and increased use of available visa numbers by applicant. It also mentioned that if demand keeps growing a Final Action Date might be set for Worldwide EB-5 Unreserved applicants.
India will see moderate progress in the EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3 categories. However, EB-4 will stay unavailable for all countries until the end of fiscal year 2025 due to reaching the annual limit.
In April 2025, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will accept EB adjustment of status applications based on the Final Action Dates chart from the Visa Bulletin. Applicants can file if their priority date is earlier than the cutoff date for their category and country.
The Visa Bulletin is essential for Green Card applicants, outlining when they can apply and expect approval. It includes dates for Filing, which indicate the earliest submission date based on visa category and country, and Final Action Dates, which determine when applications will be processed for permanent residency.
The Visa Bulletin defines family sponsored Green Card Categories: F1 (First Preference) for unmarried sons & daughters of US citizens, F2 (Second Preference) for spouses, children and unmarried sons & daughters of permanent residents, with F2A for spouses & children, F2B for unmarried sons & daughters 21+. F3 for married sons & daughters of US citizens and F4 for siblings of adult US citizens.
For fiscal year 2024, the family-sponsored preference immigrant limit is 226,000, with specific allocations for each category. Per-country limits are capped at 7% of the total annual family-sponsored and employment-based (EB) preference visas.