Visa bulletin May 2025: Major setback for Indian EB-5 applicants

The US Department of State’s May 2025 visa bulletin has brought a significant setback for Indian nationals pursuing permanent residency under the EB-5 visa category. The EB-5 Unreserved cutoff date for India has retrogressed by over six months from November 1, 2019 to May 1, 2019, delaying green card processing for many investors. This regression is attributed to the high demand from Indian applicants and increased global interest, which has rapidly depleted the available visas in this category. In contrast, China’s EV-5 cutoff date remains unchanged at January 22, 2014. 

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The EB-5 program allows foreign investors to obtain green cards by investing in US businesses, with a portion of visas reserved for rural or high-unemployment areas. However, most Indian investors apply under the unreserved category which is now facing heavy congestion. 

Other employment-based categories for Indians have also seen limited progress. EB-1 and EB-2 remain stalled at February 2, 2022 and January 1, 2013 respectively. EB-3 has moved slightly, with a new cutoff at April 15,2013. 

With annual country caps in place and the Biden-to-Trump policy shift emphasizing tighter immigration controls, even high-skilled and investor immigrants are now feeling the pressure.