May 2025 Visa Bulletin: Grim News for Indian Immigrants

WASHINGTON — Thousands of Indian hopefuls for U.S. visas are facing discouraging news as the U.S. Department of State‘s Visa Bulletin for May 2025 reveals significant retrogression in key employment-based categories including the EB-5.

The bulletin, released recently, shows that the cutoff date for the EB-5 Unreserved category for Indian applicants has regressed over six months to May 1, 2019. In comparison, the cutoff date for Chinese applicants remains unchanged at January 22, 2014. This shift highlights the challenging landscape for many seeking to secure permanent residency in the United States.

According to the bulletin, the retrogression is largely attributed to intense demand from Indian applicants combined with increased competition from applicants worldwide. “High demand and number use by India in the EB-5 unreserved visa categories, along with increased Rest of World demand and number use, necessitated this retrogression to hold number use within the maximum allowed under the FY-2025 annual limits,” the bulletin stated.

For the Employment-Based, First Preference (EB-1) category, there is no change; the cutoff date for India remains at February 2, 2022, and for China, it is November 8, 2022. The EB-1 category for all other countries remains current.

The Employment-Based, Second Preference (EB-2) category also remains unchanged. The cutoff date for India continues to be January 1, 2013, while for China, it is October 1, 2020. Other countries maintain a cutoff date of June 22, 2023.

In the EB-3 category, India’s cutoff date advances by two weeks, moving to April 15, 2013. Meanwhile, the cutoff for China remains at November 1, 2020, and the date for other countries persists at January 1, 2023. In the EB-3 Other Workers category, India’s date aligns with the EB-3 cutoff at April 15, 2013.

The bulletin emphasized that the fiscal year 2025 limit for family-sponsored preference immigrants is set at 226,000, and the annual employment-based preference immigrant limit is at least 140,000. According to Section 202 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the per-country limit for preference immigrants is capped at 7% of the total annual limits, amounting to about 25,620 for each country. There is also a dependent area limit set at 2%, or 7,320 visas.

Visa retrogression arises when the number of applicants for a specific visa category or nationality exceeds the available visas, leading to cutoff dates being pushed back. This situation is particularly prevalent toward the end of the fiscal year when quotas are nearing exhaustion. Only those applicants with a priority date earlier than the cutoff date in the recent bulletin are eligible to proceed with applications for permanent residency.

Since President Donald Trump resumed office in January 2025, immigration policy has returned to the forefront of U.S. political discourse. His administration’s focus on a stricter “America First” agenda has influenced immigration policies significantly, tightening pathways for high-skilled immigrants, especially those from India. The current landscape highlights the complexities of legal immigration as regulations tighten under existing frameworks.