The U.S. State Department’s May 2025 Visa Bulletin has dealt a notable setback to Indian nationals navigating the EB-5 visa process, particularly in the Unreserved category. The final action date for Indian EB-5 applicants has retrogressed by more than six months, moving from November 1, 2019, to May 1, 2019. This regression effectively delays the visa and green card processing for hundreds of Indian investors, making the wait longer and the process more uncertain.
This retrogression is especially frustrating given the unchanged EB-5 cutoff date for Chinese nationals, which holds steady at January 22, 2014. Although China has long dominated the EB-5 category in terms of backlog, India’s rising interest and participation in the program over the past few years has now begun to mirror that pattern, placing Indian applicants squarely in the crosshairs of visa oversubscription.
According to the bulletin, this retrogression was unavoidable due to increased demand from Indian nationals, combined with a spike in global applications. "It was necessary to further retrogress the Indian final action date to hold number use within the maximum allowed under the FY-2025 annual limits," the bulletin stated, indicating that this move was made to stay within statutory visa ceilings.
The EB-5 visa, often dubbed the “golden visa,” allows foreign investors to obtain U.S. green cards by investing at least $800,000 in a qualifying U.S. project, especially in rural, high-unemployment, or infrastructure areas. A portion of these visas—called "reserved" visas—are specifically set aside for such targeted investments, but most Indian applicants are concentrated in the unreserved category, where demand has far outstripped supply.
The 'Final Action Dates' are pivotal: if an applicant’s priority date (the date their EB-5 petition was filed) falls before the published cutoff, USCIS can process their green card application. With the date now pushed to May 1, 2019, any Indian EB-5 applicant who filed after that date will face a considerable wait—likely extending well into future fiscal years unless new legislation or executive action increases visa numbers.
Across other employment-based categories, the picture is similarly discouraging for Indian applicants:
-
EB-1 (priority workers): No movement, still at February 2, 2022
-
EB-2 (advanced degree professionals): Frozen at January 1, 2013
-
EB-3 (skilled workers/professionals): Advanced by a modest two weeks to April 15, 2013
All these dates highlight the chronic backlog Indian professionals face in securing U.S. green cards—even those with years of education and experience in highly skilled fields.
This visa slowdown comes amidst heightened immigration scrutiny under the second Trump administration, which resumed in January 2025. While the administration's main focus has been on tightening illegal immigration, particularly at the southern border, there has been a noticeable ripple effect on legal immigration pathways as well, including those previously seen as secure or business-friendly—such as H-1B visas and EB-5 investments.
The administration’s renewed "America First" agenda has led to:
-
Stricter adjudication standards for visa approvals
-
Delays in administrative processing
-
Heightened compliance enforcement
-
And a more visible preference for reducing overall immigration numbers
What complicates matters further is the country cap rule: no more than 7% of the total employment-based or family-sponsored visas can go to nationals of any single country. For India, this translates to just 25,620 visas annually across all categories, regardless of demand, population size, or contribution to the U.S. economy. With backlogs stretching into decades in some categories, these per-country limits are increasingly viewed as outdated and counterproductive.
Immigration advocates and legal experts are calling for comprehensive reform, including:
-
Elimination of country caps
-
Recapturing unused visas from previous years
-
Increasing employment-based visa quotas
-
Prioritizing skilled immigrants in tech, finance, and healthcare
For now, Indian investors and professionals face an uncertain path forward. Many are looking into alternate immigration pathways—such as Canada’s Startup Visa, Portugal’s Golden Visa, or even Australia’s Global Talent Visa—as the American dream becomes increasingly difficult to access through traditional channels.
