EB-5 Visa Bulletin

A 'Current' designation means no backlog exists for that category and chargeability area — a visa number is immediately available for all applicants regardless of their priority date.

Your priority date is the date USCIS received your I-526 or I-526E petition. It determines your place in line for a visa number. When the monthly cutoff date advances past your priority date, you become eligible to proceed with immigrant visa processing.

EB-5 visas are subject to per-country limits — no single country may receive more than 7% of available visas in a given year. China and India historically have more EB-5 applicants than this limit allows, creating a backlog. Most other countries file far fewer applications and remain Current.

Retrogression occurs when USCIS receives more applications than expected, causing the cutoff date to move to an earlier date. This can temporarily prevent applicants whose priority dates were previously current from proceeding. Retrogression is unpredictable and underscores the importance of monitoring the bulletin monthly.

Final Action Dates are when USCIS will approve an immigrant visa application. Dates for Filing (when announced by USCIS) allow applicants to submit adjustment of status applications earlier, even before a visa is immediately available. USCIS announces monthly whether the Filing Date chart may be used.

The State Department publishes a new bulletin each month, typically in the third week of the preceding month. For example, the March 2026 bulletin is published in February 2026. EB5 Status updates cutoff data immediately after each bulletin is released.

The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 reserved 20% of annual EB-5 visas for rural projects, 10% for high unemployment area (HUA) projects, and 2% for infrastructure projects. Set-aside visas have separate cutoff dates and historically remain Current even for countries with Unreserved backlogs.