US Visa Bulletin April 2025: Bad News for Indian Green Card Seekers
11 Mar, 2025 13:21 IST|Sakshi Post
In bad news for Indian Green card applicants, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the Visa Bulletin for April 2025 and it shows that the EB-5 category for Indian green card applicants has retrogressed by over two years, now set at November 1, 2019. The bulletin cites increased demand and Visa usage as the reason for this setback, which largely affects Indian and Chinese applicants.
The retrogression in the EB-5 unreserved category was due to the volume of applications. This development comes at a time when the Trump administration plans to replace the program with a "Gold Card", which plans to provide Green cards to investors who will pay $5 Million US dollars to the government.
Barring EB-5, there has been a slight improvement in India's state in other EB categories as the country makes a move forward in EB-1,2 and 3 categories.
EB-4 will remain unavailable for all countries until the end of fiscal year 2025.
What is Visa Retrogression and Why Does It Happen?
Visa retrogression occurs when the U.S. Department of State moves the priority date backward in the Visa bulletin. This creates delays for green card applicants. Usually, retrogression affects people applying for employment-based or family-sponsored immigration visas.
Typically, the United States issues a limited number of immigrant visas (green cards) each year, divided by category and country of chargeability. When the number of applications from a country or category exceeds the visa limit, the U.S. government retrogresses the priority dates. The unfortunate effect of this is that those applicants who were eligible earlier must also have to wait.
Categories such as EB-2, and EB-3 for countries like India and China often face retrogression owing to high demand. If your green card application retrogresses and if you are in the U.S., your application will be paused until your priority date becomes current again. On the other hand, if you are living outside the U.S., you cannot set a visa interview until the date is current.
