India EB-5 Unreserved Becomes Unavailable: The July 2026 Visa Bulletin, Explained

In the July 2026 Visa Bulletin, the EB-5 unreserved category for India is listed as "Unavailable," which means the Department of State will not authorize any unreserved EB-5 visa numbers for India-born applicants for the remainder of fiscal year 2026. The three set-aside categories, rural, high-unemployment, and infrastructure, stay Current for every country, so the reserved lane is the one part of EB-5 still moving for Indian investors.

As of June 25, 2026, this is the picture in the most recent bulletin the State Department has published (Visa Bulletin No. 16, Vol. XI). Nothing below is a forecast. It is a reading of the EB-5 rows in the current bulletin and the statute behind them.

The word "Unavailable" sounds like a wall. It is closer to a closed lane on a road that still has open lanes beside it. Below is what the designation actually does, why it landed on India and not on the set-asides, where China sits in the same bulletin, and the two dates that matter most for an Indian investor planning a filing.

What does "Unavailable" mean in the July 2026 Visa Bulletin?#

A Final Action Date is the cutoff the State Department uses to decide when an immigrant visa or green card can actually be issued. When a category shows a date, an applicant whose priority date is earlier than that date can complete the final step. When a category shows "C" it is Current, and there is no wait at all. When it shows "U" it is Unavailable, and no visa numbers in that category will be issued to that country for the rest of the fiscal year.

So for India's unreserved EB-5 column in July 2026, "Unavailable" means the final allocation has stopped. An India-born applicant in the unreserved category who is sitting at the consular interview or adjustment-of-status stage cannot be approved for a green card under that category until visa numbers open again.

What it does not mean is just as important:

• It does not stop you from filing an I-526E. The Visa Bulletin governs the back end of the process, the issuance of the visa number, not the front end. You can file the immigrant petition (Form I-526E) at any time regardless of what the bulletin shows. The petition stage and the visa-allocation stage are two different gates.
• It does not erase your place in line. A priority date is permanent once it is established. "Unavailable" pauses movement; it does not reset the queue.
• It is a fiscal-year condition, not a permanent one. The designation is explicitly for the remainder of fiscal year 2026, which ends September 30, 2026. More on the reset below.

If the language of the bulletin is new to you, our walkthrough on how to read the EB-5 Visa Bulletin and priority dates breaks down every column, and the live Visa Bulletin tracker keeps the current figures in one place.

Why did India EB-5 unreserved go unavailable?#

The bulletin itself gives the reason: India's pro-rated EB-5 unreserved limit for the year was reached, so the category is unavailable for the remainder of fiscal year 2026.

Here is the mechanism. EB-5 receives roughly 9,940 visas a year as a baseline, which is 7.1 percent of the worldwide employment-based level. Of that pool, 68 percent is "unreserved," the ordinary EB-5 category that existed long before the 2022 reforms. No single country may take more than a set share of a category in a given year. India's demand in the unreserved lane has been heavy enough that, partway through the fiscal year, its allotted share of unreserved numbers ran out. When a country exhausts its pro-rated allocation before September 30, the State Department has one tool left: declare the category unavailable until the calendar turns.

This did not come without warning. The Visa Office had flagged the risk of India unreserved retrogressing or going unavailable in its forward-looking notes earlier in the year. The July bulletin is the consequence of demand finally crossing that threshold. For the wider context of how this fits the year-end allocation squeeze, see our EB-5 Visa Bulletin forecast for August through December 2026.

What stays Current: the set-aside fast lane#

This is the part of the July 2026 bulletin that changes the strategy conversation. Every set-aside category is Current for every country, India included.

The 2022 Reform and Integrity Act carved 32 percent of the annual EB-5 allocation into three reserved buckets:

• Rural projects: 20 percent of the annual allocation.
• High-unemployment area projects: 10 percent.
• Infrastructure projects: 2 percent.

Because these buckets are newer and demand has not yet filled them, they have stayed Current across the board. Their visa numbers are drawn from separate pools, so the congestion in the unreserved lane does not touch them. That is the whole point of the design: an Indian or Chinese investor who would otherwise face a multi-year wait in the unreserved category can file into a set-aside project and have a visa number available immediately.

A targeted employment area, the basis for the rural and high-unemployment categories, also carries the lower $800,000 investment minimum rather than the $1,050,000 standard amount. Infrastructure projects, which must be administered by a governmental job-creating entity, sit at the same $800,000 level. So the set-aside route is frequently both faster and cheaper. We unpack each bucket in EB-5 reserved set-asides: rural, HUA, and infrastructure stay current, and you can pressure-test a project mix against your own timeline with the filing checklist tool.

A fair caution: "Current today" is not "Current forever." The set-asides stay open precisely because demand has not yet caught up to supply. As more backlogged-country investors route into them, the reserved categories will eventually develop their own cutoff dates. The advantage is real, but it rewards filers who move while the lane is open rather than after it closes.

How do the EB-5 rows actually read in July 2026?#

Here is the full EB-5 picture from the July 2026 bulletin, both charts side by side.

All other countries, including Mexico and the Philippines, are Current in every EB-5 category on both charts. China and India are the only two with unreserved cutoffs.

Notice the split inside India's own row. The Final Action Date is Unavailable, but the Dates for Filing for India unreserved still sits at May 1, 2024. The two charts answer different questions. Dates for Filing tells you when you may submit your paperwork and assemble your case; Final Action tells you when a visa can actually be issued. An Indian unreserved applicant can keep their documentation stage moving under the filing chart even though final issuance is frozen. The distinction trips up a lot of people, and we devote a full piece to filing date versus final action date for that reason.

Where do China and the other countries sit?#

China is the only other country carrying an EB-5 unreserved backlog. In the July 2026 bulletin its unreserved Final Action Date is December 1, 2016, with a Dates for Filing cutoff of March 1, 2017. Those cutoffs sitting back in 2016 and 2017 reflect years of accumulated Chinese demand in the category. China has not gone unavailable; it is simply holding a deep cutoff while its allocation is metered out.

The contrast with India is instructive. India's unreserved category was held current far longer than China's and only recently developed a cutoff, so when its annual share ran out the State Department went straight to "Unavailable" rather than to a date in the past. Two different countries, two different positions in the same queue, and the same escape hatch for both: the set-asides, which are Current for China and India alike. Our China EB-5 backlog breakdown covers the mainland-born picture in depth, and the India country hub and China country hub track each country's movement over time.

What should Indian investors do now?#

The practical reading of this bulletin for an Indian investor comes down to a single fork.

If you are weighing a new EB-5 investment, the set-aside route is the live option. Filing into a rural, high-unemployment, or infrastructure project gives you a Current category, an immediately available visa number, and the lower $800,000 minimum. The unreserved lane, by contrast, now means joining a queue that has just demonstrated it can run dry mid-year. For most Indian investors starting fresh in 2026, a reserved-category project is the difference between a moving file and a paused one.

If you already have an unreserved petition on file, your priority date is safe and you keep your place. The pause affects when a visa can issue, not whether your petition survives. You can continue advancing the documentation side of your case under the Dates for Filing chart. Whether it makes sense to also pursue a set-aside option depends on your timeline and your tolerance for the unreserved wait, which is a question worth running past counsel.

Either way, the filing-stage mechanics still apply. The current USCIS fee for the I-526E is $3,675, with a separate $1,000 EB-5 Integrity Fund contribution collected alongside it, and those government fees sit on top of the investment itself plus regional center and legal costs. Source-of-funds preparation, not the bulletin, is what usually sets the real timeline, so the work of documenting a clean, traceable capital path can begin today regardless of visa availability. You can gauge where adjudication stands on the processing times tracker, screen a project's structure with the denial risk analyzer, and confirm category-specific strategy with an EB-5 immigration attorney. For plain-language definitions of the terms used here, the EB-5 glossary is the reference.

What happens on October 1, 2026?#

Fiscal year 2026 ends September 30, 2026. On October 1, 2026, fiscal year 2027 begins with a brand-new annual allocation of EB-5 visa numbers. That reset is why "Unavailable" is a temporary condition rather than a permanent one.

When the new fiscal year opens, India's unreserved category is expected to become available again as fresh numbers flow into the pool. What the reset does not guarantee is a return to "Current." When a country has shown enough demand to exhaust its share mid-year, the State Department typically reopens the category with a Final Action Date, a cutoff in the past, rather than as fully current, and then meters movement from there. The exact reopening position is set by the Visa Office and is not announced ahead of the bulletin, so we will not put a date on it here. What is certain is the structure: the annual clock resets every October 1, and the FY2026 freeze does not carry into FY2027. The mechanics of that year-end handoff are covered in the FY2026 to FY2027 visa allocation transition.

One more date sits in the background for every EB-5 filer this year. Petitions filed on or before September 30, 2026 are grandfathered under the Reform and Integrity Act, which protects them if the Regional Center Program lapses after its September 30, 2027 sunset. That deadline is independent of the Visa Bulletin, but it pushes in the same direction: for an Indian investor, the case for filing into a Current set-aside category sooner rather than later is reinforced by both the visa math and the grandfathering clock.

The bottom line#

India EB-5 unreserved is Unavailable in the July 2026 Visa Bulletin because the country hit its pro-rated annual limit, and the freeze runs through the end of fiscal year 2026. It pauses final visa issuance for India-born unreserved applicants; it does not stop new petitions, and it does not touch the set-asides, which remain Current for every country. The reserved categories, with their lower $800,000 minimum and immediate availability, are the practical path for Indian investors right now, and the annual allocation resets on October 1, 2026. The strategy that follows from this bulletin is not "wait." It is "file into a lane that is open."

Sources#

• U.S. Department of State, Visa Bulletin for July 2026
• USCIS, About the EB-5 Visa Classification
• USCIS, Policy Manual Volume 6, Part G (Investors)
• 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5) (statute, including the set-aside allocations and program sunset)
• USCIS, Court Order on Partial Stay of the DHS 2024 Fee Rule
• USCIS, EB-5 Integrity Fund