EB-5 India: an investor queue that is only a few years old
Enter the priority date from your Form I-526E receipt to check the unreserved EB-5 row for an investor born in India.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and past error
October 2026 bulletin
Current
Your date is before the Final Action cutoff: a green card can be approved this month.
| Final Action Date | December 1, 2023 |
|---|---|
| Date for Filing | May 1, 2024 |
| I-485 this month (USCIS uses Dates for Filing) | You can file |
| I-485 employment, national average (August 2026) | 11.8 months |
| Government fees (paper filing, with work permit and travel permit) | $3,645 |
How this was calculated
- Fees: I-140 $715 + I-140 $600 + I-485 $1,440 + I-765 $260 + I-131 $630 (USCIS Form G-1055, edition 10/07/26, and State Department visa fees).
Estimate from public data, not legal advice. Your case may differ (cross-chargeability, CSPA, waivers). For advice, see a licensed immigration attorney or a DOJ-accredited representative. Not affiliated with USCIS or the Department of State. Method and past error
The October 2026 Visa Bulletin gives EB-5 India, in the unreserved row, a Final Action Date of December 1, 2023 and a Date for Filing of May 1, 2024. It follows 3 bulletins in 2026, July 2026, August 2026 and September 2026, in which the Indian unreserved row was listed as unavailable, meaning no Indian unreserved EB-5 green card could be approved. This queue is recent: the Indian column was Current until September 2022, and the October 2022 bulletin replaced Current with a date, a fall of about 34 months. Since October 2015 the column has differed from the worldwide one in 46% of bulletins. The rural, high-unemployment and infrastructure set-aside rows are Current for India this month, so the cutoff applies only to investors whose project falls in the unreserved row. No distance passes our back-test here, so the calculator shows no forecast.
How the Indian queue began
For most of the archive, investors born in India waited behind no cutoff. The column had a date for about a year from mid-2019, was Current again from July 2020 and stayed so until September 2022. Then October 2022 moved it from Current (C) to November 8, 2019, the deepest single drop this line has recorded. It opened the next three fiscal years at December 15, 2018, January 1, 2022 and February 1, 2021, with two steps back inside fiscal 2025: November 1, 2019 in April and May 1, 2019 in May.
The 2026 freeze
The row held at May 1, 2022 through June 2026, then was listed as unavailable in July 2026, August 2026 and September 2026. The October 2026 bulletin reopened it at December 1, 2023, with the Date for Filing at May 1, 2024. An Indian investor with a pending Form I-485 simply waits through an unavailable month; nothing is cancelled, but nothing can be approved.
Set-aside rows
This month the rural, high-unemployment and infrastructure rows all read Current (C) for India. An investor whose project qualifies for one of them is not held to the unreserved date above. The classification is fixed by the petition, not by the investor’s choice; the EB-5 overview explains the four rows.
No forecast for now
From October 2012 to October 2025 there were few periods in which this row had a cutoff to follow. Forecasts for Indian dates six months behind missed by a median of 2.5 months, but the range held the real outcome only 27 % of the time; a year behind, coverage was 26 %. The calculator therefore reports the cutoff and your distance from it.
EB-5 in the October 2026 bulletin
| Country | Final Action | Dates for Filing | Change this month |
|---|---|---|---|
| All other countries | Current (C) | Current (C) | ▲ 30 days |
| China (mainland born) | December 1, 2016 | March 1, 2021 | no change |
| India | December 1, 2023 | May 1, 2024 | ▲ 579 days |
| Mexico | Current (C) | Current (C) | ▲ 30 days |
| Philippines | Current (C) | Current (C) | ▲ 30 days |
Every October since 2002
| Bulletin | Final Action Date | Years behind the bulletin |
|---|---|---|
| October 2002 | Current (C) | – |
| October 2003 | Current (C) | – |
| October 2004 | Current (C) | – |
| October 2005 | Current (C) | – |
| October 2006 | Current (C) | – |
| October 2007 | Current (C) | – |
| October 2008 | Current (C) | – |
| October 2009 | Unavailable (U) | – |
| October 2010 | Current (C) | – |
| October 2011 | Current (C) | – |
| October 2012 | Unavailable (U) | – |
| October 2013 | Current (C) | – |
| October 2014 | Current (C) | – |
| October 2015 | Current (C) | – |
| October 2016 | Current (C) | – |
| October 2017 | Current (C) | – |
| October 2018 | Current (C) | – |
| October 2019 | November 22, 2017 | 1.9 |
| October 2020 | Current (C) | – |
| October 2021 | Current (C) | – |
| October 2022 | November 8, 2019 | 2.9 |
| October 2023 | December 15, 2018 | 4.8 |
| October 2024 | January 1, 2022 | 2.7 |
| October 2025 | February 1, 2021 | 4.7 |
| October 2026 | December 1, 2023 | 2.8 |
How our forecast did for this case
| Distance behind the cutoff | Median error, our model | Median error, “last 12 months” rule | Range held the real date | Start months tested | Published? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 months | 3 months | 595 months | 27 % | 48 | No reliable forecast |
| 12 months | 4 months | 593 months | 26 % | 47 | No reliable forecast |
| 24 months | 18 months | 588 months | 21 % | 39 | No reliable forecast |
| 48 months | 15 months | 584 months | 24 % | 18 | No reliable forecast |