US Keeps Indian EB-2 Green Card Cutoff At 2013

WASHINGTON, DC.- Indian professionals waiting for employment-based green cards in the advanced-degree category saw no movement for a second straight month, as the US State Department’s November 2026 Visa Bulletin kept India’s EB-2 final action date at November 1, 2013. The date for most other countries advanced by three months.

Meanwhile, a Department of Homeland Security proposal to change deadlines for paid premium processing, widely used by employers sponsoring H-1B workers, is under review at the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).

According to reginfo.gov, OIRA received the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) proposal, titled “Amending the Premium Processing Timeframe” (RIN 1615-AD25), on October 13. It remains pending review, has no legal deadline and is not designated economically significant. The proposal has not been made public, and the listing does not specify which visa categories would be affected or whether processing deadlines would be lengthened or shortened.

A separate USCIS proposal, “Reforming the H-1B Non-immigrant Visa Classification Program” (RIN 1615-AD00), has been pending at OIRA since August 24 and is designated economically significant, according to the listing.

In the November bulletin, the EB-2 final action date for applicants from most countries moved from January 1, 2025, in October to April 1, 2025. Mexico and the Philippines advanced by the same amount, while the date for applicants born in China remained October 1, 2021.

India’s EB-3 final action date advanced by three weeks to January 22, 2014. The EB-3 “Other Workers” date for India also moved to January 22, 2014. For most other countries, the EB-3 date advanced to June 15, 2024. India’s EB-1 date remained February 1, 2023, while the EB-5 unreserved category for Indian investors stayed at December 1, 2023.

The dates for filing employment-based applications for India remained January 15, 2015, for both EB-2 and EB-3, according to the bulletin.

The USCIS website says employment-based adjustment-of-status applicants must use the Dates for Filing chart in November. This allows Indian EB-2 applicants in the US with priority dates before January 15, 2015, to file adjustment-of-status applications, although green cards can be approved only for applicants whose priority dates are earlier than November 1, 2013.

Indian family-sponsored applicants saw movement in several categories. Final action dates for F1, F2B and F3 advanced to January 22, 2021, August 22, 2020, and October 22, 2015, respectively. The F4 category, covering brothers and sisters of adult US citizens, remained at December 15, 2006, for India, compared with October 22, 2012, for most other countries.

The bulletin says per-country limits apply to applicants born in mainland China, India, Mexico and the Philippines. The limit is 7 percent of the combined annual family-sponsored and employment-based visa limits.

India’s EB-2 category was unavailable during the final months of fiscal 2026. In its July 2026 bulletin, the State Department said, “It is likely that in October the final action date will advance to at least the final action date announced in the May 2026 Visa Bulletin.”

The latest bulletin comes amid a renewed push by New Jersey Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer to end per-country caps on employment-based green cards.

“Imagine waiting 179 years for a green card. That’s the projected wait for Indian green card applicants,” Gottheimer said on X. (IANS)