In what comes as bad news for Indian Green applicants, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has published the April 2025 Visa Bulletin, revealing significant updates for employment-based (EB) immigrant visa categories. India's EB-5 Unreserved category will experience a substantial retrogression, shifting back by more than two years to November 1, 2019.

According to the bulletin, EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3 categories will see moderate advancements for India, while EB-4 will remain unavailable for all countries until the end of fiscal year 2025, as the annual limit has been reached.

China will retrogress by approximately two-and-a-half years to January 22, 2014. All other countries will remain current in the EB-5 Unreserved category.

"Increased demand and number use by China and India in the EB-5 unreserved visa categories, combined with increased Rest of World demand and number use, made it necessary to retrogress the final action dates to hold number use within the maximum allowed under the FY-2025 annual limits," said USCIS.

They added, "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."

What is EB-5 visa?

The EB-5 visa programme is a pathway for investors which provides permanent residency (and eventually US citizenship) in a comparatively short period of time.

As per USCIS guidelines, the minimum investment amount for an EB-5 visa must be either $10,50,000 (₹91,543,795) or $8,00,000 (₹69,747,653) if the investment is in a targeted employment area, which can be in a rural area or an area with high unemployment.