Visa bulletin May 2026: US gives major update on EB-5 Green Card availability for Indian applicants
The US State Department has released the Visa Bulletin for May 2026, bringing an important update for Indian applicants, especially in the EB-5 Green Card category. While most categories have seen little to no movement, officials have warned that rising demand from India could soon impact EB-5 availability.
What is the EB-5 program?
The EB-5 program is a way to get a US Green Card by investing money. To qualify, a person must invest in the US and create at least 10 jobs. The investment amount is high but many people choose this option because it does not need a job offer or employer sponsorship, unlike most other employment-based Green Card categories.
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What is the visa bulletin?
The Visa Bulletin is a monthly update released by the State Department. It shows the cutoff dates for different Green Card categories based on the country of birth. If your priority date is before the cutoff date then you can move to the next step in the process.
There are two important dates. The Final Action Date is when USCIS can approve your Green Card. The Date for Filing is when you can submit your I-485 application.
According to the bulletin, immigrant visa numbers are issued in order of priority dates. If demand is too high in a category or country then it becomes oversubscribed and cut-off dates are applied. If limits are reached then categories can even become unavailable.
Officials also noted that if demand increases further during the year, “it would be necessary to immediately make the preference category ‘unavailable’, and no further requests for numbers would be honored.”
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Where do other India categories stand?
For Indian applicants, the dates in other employment-based categories have not changed from last month. The Final Action Date for EB-1 is still April 1, 2023. For EB-2, it remains July 15, 2014. For EB-3, it is November 15, 2013.
Most Indian professionals apply under EB-2 and EB-3 and these categories continue to have long backlogs. EB-1 is meant for priority workers and top talent, while EB-2 is for professionals with advanced degrees and EB-3 for skilled workers.
Although the April bulletin showed good forward movement, the dates are now frozen at those levels.
A broader shift in Visa availability
The bulletin says that visa processing has slowed down for some countries because of administrative and national security actions by the government. Because of this, the State Department has moved dates forward in some categories for other countries so that unused visas can be used in fiscal year 2026.
At the same time, the bulletin warns that if more people apply later or if policies change, the dates could move backward again.
For Indian applicants, especially those planning to apply through the EB-5 route, the message is simple that the opportunity may become limited and things can change quickly.