By World Times Desk | May 14, 2026
New York - The June 2026 Visa Bulletin has delivered a sharp setback for Indian Green Card applicants. India's Final Action Date for EB-1 has been pushed back by three and a half months to December 15, 2022, while the EB-2 category has retrogressed by more than ten months to September 1, 2013.
What Are EB-1 and EB-2?
EB-1 covers individuals with extraordinary ability, outstanding researchers, and multinational managers. EB-2 covers professionals with advanced degrees — including software engineers, data scientists, and doctors — many of whom are Indian nationals on H-1B visas. Both are common pathways to permanent residency in the US.
What Is a Final Action Date?
The Final Action Date determines who can actually receive a Green Card in a given month. Your Priority Date — the date your employer filed a PERM labor certification or USCIS received your I-140 petition — must fall before this date. For June 2026, only EB-2 applicants from India with a Priority Date before September 1, 2013 are eligible to receive their Green Card this month.
Other June 2026 Bulletin Highlights
EB-1 for China remains at April 1, 2023. EB-2 for China is September 1, 2021. India's EB-3 cutoff inches forward slightly to December 15, 2023. For all countries other than India and China, both EB-1 and EB-2 remain Current — meaning no wait at all.
Why Did This Happen?
Retrogression occurs when demand exceeds the annual visa quota. The US caps employment-based visas at 7% per country, and India's high volume of applicants regularly exhausts that share before the fiscal year ends. USCIS warned that further retrogression — or making the categories entirely unavailable for India — remains possible before September 30, 2026 if limits are reached.
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