The US State Department’s May 2026 Visa Bulletin contains an unusual flag: demand from India in the EB-5 “Unreserved” category has risen so sharply that a priority-date cut-off—or even temporary unavailability—may be imposed to stay within the FY 2026 visa cap. Immigration attorneys say this is the first formal retrogression warning for India since the EB-5 Reform & Integrity Act of 2022 super-charged interest by allowing concurrent adjustment of status for applicants already in the United States. Freedom-of-Information data show Indians now account for 22 percent of the 13,520 petitions filed worldwide since April 2022, second only to China. If a cut-off is announced, Indian investors would lose the ability to file an I-485 green-card application at the same time as the I-526E investment petition, lengthening overall processing by years. Experts therefore urge corporates and high-net-worth families considering EB-5 to lodge petitions—especially in the Rural, High-Unemployment or Infrastructure “Reserved” sub-categories, which remain current—before any retrogression is published, and certainly before the programme’s grandfathering deadline of 30 September 2026. Companies that rely on the EB-5 route to relocate senior executives to the US should now evaluate alternative mobility strategies or budget for longer bridging-visa periods.
Source: Business Standard
