By Joseph Barnett, WR Immigration
The April 2026 Visa Bulletin confirms that USCIS will use the Dates for Filing chart and will allow modest forward movement for India in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories.
At first glance, this looks like positive news. But a closer look tells a different story.
The headline movement is straightforward: EB-2 India advances by two months and EB-3 India by five months, both landing on January 15, 2015. On paper, that seems like progress. In reality, it’s not.
That same EB-2 cutoff date was already reached back in August 2022. In other words, the system hasn’t meaningfully moved forward in nearly four years. Rather than opening new doors, it’s effectively revisiting old ground. Many applicants who could benefit from this cutoff already had the opportunity to file when it was previously current.
Just as importantly, this movement is limited to Dates for Filing. That distinction matters. Being eligible to file does not mean a green card is available. Final Action Dates remain far behind, and the underlying backlog continues to delay actual approvals. For many applicants, filing now may offer some procedural advantages, but it doesn’t significantly change the overall timeline.
Because this cutoff was already reached in 2022, the pool of newly eligible applicants is also quite small. Most cases that could take advantage of this window are likely already in the system or were strategically prepared in advance. As a result, the practical impact of this advancement is minimal—and there’s always the risk that these dates could stall or even move backward again.
How do these date movements in EB-2 and EB-3 affect EB-5?
When you compare this to EB-5, the contrast is striking.
EB-5 India’s Dates for Filing currently sit at May 1, 2024, while EB-2 and EB-3 remain in January 2015, a gap of roughly nine years. That difference isn’t just numerical; it fundamentally changes the immigration timeline and strategy.
EB-5 offers several clear advantages:
- More current priority dates
- Earlier access to Adjustment of Status
- Faster eligibility for work authorization and travel documents
- A more predictable path to permanent residence
Taken together, these factors create a very different experience for applicants.
The broader takeaway from this month’s Visa Bulletin is that incremental movement in EB-2 and EB-3 does not address the structural backlog. Returning to a cutoff date first seen in 2022 isn’t meaningful progress: it’s a sign of stagnation.
Bottom line: while EB-2 and EB-3 continue to inch forward in a limited and often symbolic way, EB-5 operates on a fundamentally more favorable timeline.
If EB-2 and EB-3 are still circling around 2015, EB-5 is already operating in 2024.
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