The Department of State (DOS) reported in the September Visa Bulletin that the EB-5 priority dates for Indian and Chinese investors remain unchanged, however the expected employment-based visa limits for fiscal year 2025 could be reached in August and September.
The final action dates for Unreserved applications from India continue to be Nov. 15, 2019, and for China, Dec. 8, 2015. This means that investors from these countries with priority dates earlier than these can proceed to final adjudication.
The EB-5 visa filing dates for these nationalities also remain the same: Apr. 1, 2022, for India and Oct. 1, 2016, for China.
EB-5 visa dates for global countries
The application dates for all other countries, in both Unreserved and Set Aside categories, remain current. As this is the final visa bulletin of fiscal year 2025, the backlog that the Department of State (DOS) cautioned in January, due to high demand, did not materialize.
The filing date indicates when applicants can assemble and submit their EB-5 forms and documentation to the National Visa Center (NVC) for processing. Meanwhile, the final action date indicates when an EB-5 immigrant visa becomes available for issuance to investors who have already initiated their applications.
DOS reminds of employment visa allocation limits
The DOS also clarified that due to rising demand, the limits for fiscal year 2025 are expected to be reached in most employment-based categories in August or September. If these limits are reached, those categories will be marked as “unavailable,” meaning that no further requests for visas will be processed.
For the annual visa limit for fiscal year 2025, the DOS has set a total of 150,037 for employment-based preferences. The per-country limit remains at 7%, which corresponds to 26,323 visas, while the annual limit for dependents is set at 2%, or 7,521 visas.
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