EB-4 — India
In the July 2026 Visa Bulletin, EB-4 for India has a Final Action Dates cut-off of 15 September 2022 and a Dates for Filing cut-off of 1 January 2023. The Final Action cut-off has been advancing, so the page shows its measured pace and what that pace would imply for a given priority date — as an estimate, never a prediction. This page carries the full published history State printed for this combination: 284 Final Action Dates bulletins back to December 2001, and 130 Dates for Filing bulletins back to October 2015 — every cut-off, every month it moved, and the exact text State printed in each cell. It reports what was published; it is not legal advice.
Source bulletin July 2026 U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs — Visa Bulletin. A work of the U.S. Government, in the public domain (17 U.S.C. §105). Every figure below is the one State printed, kept with its exact source text.
The July 2026 cut-offs
State publishes two charts for EB-4, and they are not interchangeable. Both are shown here as printed. India has its own column because demand from applicants chargeable there exceeds the per-country limit, so its cut-offs are usually further behind than the "all other countries" column.
- Final Action Dates
15 September 2022
When a visa can actually be issued. From the July 2026 bulletin · State printed this cell as 15SEP22
- Dates for Filing
1 January 2023
When the application may be submitted. From the July 2026 bulletin · State printed this cell as 01JAN23
This is not legal advice This page republishes cut-off dates exactly as the State Department published them. It cannot tell you what will happen to your case, and being current in a chart is not the same as a visa being issued. Cut-off dates routinely stall, and they can move backward without warning. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed immigration attorney.
Final Action Dates
The chart that decides whether a visa can be issued. State has published a Final Action Dates figure for EB-4 / India in 284 bulletins since December 2001.
Final Action Dates: when would a priority date be reached?
The cut-off to compare against The Final Action Dates cut-off in the July 2026 bulletin is 15 September 2022. A priority date earlier than that has been reached.
Enter a priority date to compare it against the July 2026 cut-off of 15 September 2022.
Any estimate here is an estimate Estimate only. It projects the cut-off forward at its average pace over the trailing published bulletins and assumes that pace holds. It is not a prediction and not a guarantee: cut-off dates routinely stall, and they can move BACKWARD (retrogress) without warning. Not legal advice.
How fast has this cut-off actually moved?
| Window | Bulletins used | Total movement | Average per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Last 3 bulletins April 2026 – July 2026 | 3 of 3 carried a measurable move | 62 days forward | about 20.7 days forward |
| Last 6 bulletins January 2026 – July 2026 | 6 of 6 carried a measurable move | 622 days forward | about 103.7 days forward |
| Last 12 bulletins July 2025 – July 2026 | 9 of 12 carried a measurable move | 806 days forward | about 89.6 days forward |
This table describes what already happened; it is not a forecast and it is not what any estimate on this page is computed from. A pace can be zero, or negative when the cut-off has been moving backward, and some windows have nothing measurable in them at all — a category that spent the window Current or Unavailable has no distance to average. A category State has stopped moving can also keep showing a pace from a window that closed years ago, which describes that window and nothing since.
Every published cut-off is on the line above; the table below lists every month it moved.
- Published cut-off date
- Retrogression — the cut-off moved backward (3)
- C — Current: no backlog. Not a date, so it is not on the line
- U — Unavailable: no visas issued. Not a date either
- No bulletin in the public record — the line stops rather than crossing it
- State published a bulletin but did not list this category
| Bulletin | From | To | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 2026 | 15 July 2022 | 15 September 2022 | Advanced62 days |
| April 2026 | 15 July 2021 | 15 July 2022 | Advanced365 days |
| March 2026 | 1 January 2021 | 15 July 2021 | Advanced195 days |
| January 2026 | 1 September 2020 | 1 January 2021 | Advanced122 days |
| December 2025 | 1 July 2020 | 1 September 2020 | Advanced62 days |
| October 2025 | Unavailable | 1 July 2020 | Became available again |
| April 2025 | 1 August 2019 | Unavailable | Became Unavailable |
| March 2025 | 1 January 2021 | 1 August 2019 | Retrogressed519 days |
| July 2024 | 1 November 2020 | 1 January 2021 | Advanced61 days |
| April 2024 | 1 December 2019 | 1 November 2020 | Advanced336 days |
| March 2024 | 15 May 2019 | 1 December 2019 | Advanced200 days |
| January 2024 | 1 January 2019 | 15 May 2019 | Advanced134 days |
| October 2023 | 1 September 2018 | 1 January 2019 | Advanced122 days |
| April 2023 | 1 March 2021 | 1 September 2018 | Retrogressed912 days |
| March 2023 | 22 June 2022 | 1 March 2021 | Retrogressed478 days |
| December 2022 | Current | 22 June 2022 | Retrogressed from Current |
| October 2019 | Unavailable | Current | Unavailable to Current |
| September 2019 | Current | Unavailable | Current to Unavailable |
| October 2018 | 15 February 2016 | Current | Became Current |
| September 2018 | 8 February 2016 | 15 February 2016 | Advanced7 days |
| August 2018 | Current | 8 February 2016 | Retrogressed from Current |
| October 2017 | 22 October 2015 | Current | Became Current |
| September 2017 | 15 September 2015 | 22 October 2015 | Advanced37 days |
| August 2017 | 15 August 2015 | 15 September 2015 | Advanced31 days |
Show the earlier 8 changes — back to December 2002
| Bulletin | From | To | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 2017 | Current | 15 August 2015 | Retrogressed from Current |
| October 2016 | 1 January 2010 | Current | Became Current |
| August 2016 | Current | 1 January 2010 | Retrogressed from Current |
| October 2007 | 1 January 2007 | Current | Became Current |
| September 2007 | Unavailable | 1 January 2007 | Became available again |
| August 2007 | Current | Unavailable | Current to Unavailable |
| July 2003 | not published | Current | First published |
| December 2002 | Current | not published | Left the chart |
Dates for Filing
The chart that decides when an application may be submitted — usually the more optimistic of the two. It did not exist before October 2015, so its history is shorter by design, not by omission: 130 bulletins since October 2015.
Dates for Filing: when would a priority date be reached?
The cut-off to compare against The Dates for Filing cut-off in the July 2026 bulletin is 1 January 2023. A priority date earlier than that has been reached.
Enter a priority date to compare it against the July 2026 cut-off of 1 January 2023.
Any estimate here is an estimate Estimate only. It projects the cut-off forward at its average pace over the trailing published bulletins and assumes that pace holds. It is not a prediction and not a guarantee: cut-off dates routinely stall, and they can move BACKWARD (retrogress) without warning. Not legal advice.
How fast has this cut-off actually moved?
| Window | Bulletins used | Total movement | Average per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Last 3 bulletins April 2026 – July 2026 | 3 of 3 carried a measurable move | 0 days | about 0 days |
| Last 6 bulletins January 2026 – July 2026 | 6 of 6 carried a measurable move | 657 days forward | about 109.5 days forward |
| Last 12 bulletins July 2025 – July 2026 | 12 of 12 carried a measurable move | 699 days forward | about 58.3 days forward |
This table describes what already happened; it is not a forecast and it is not what any estimate on this page is computed from. A pace can be zero, or negative when the cut-off has been moving backward, and some windows have nothing measurable in them at all — a category that spent the window Current or Unavailable has no distance to average. A category State has stopped moving can also keep showing a pace from a window that closed years ago, which describes that window and nothing since.
Every published cut-off is on the line above; the table below lists every month it moved.
- Published cut-off date
- Retrogression — the cut-off moved backward (2)
- C — Current: no backlog. Not a date, so it is not on the line
| Bulletin | From | To | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 2026 | 15 March 2021 | 1 January 2023 | Advanced657 days |
| January 2026 | 15 February 2021 | 15 March 2021 | Advanced28 days |
| October 2025 | 1 February 2021 | 15 February 2021 | Advanced14 days |
| July 2024 | 1 December 2020 | 1 February 2021 | Advanced62 days |
| April 2024 | 1 January 2020 | 1 December 2020 | Advanced335 days |
| March 2024 | 1 September 2019 | 1 January 2020 | Advanced122 days |
| January 2024 | 1 March 2019 | 1 September 2019 | Advanced184 days |
| October 2023 | 1 October 2018 | 1 March 2019 | Advanced151 days |
| April 2023 | 1 April 2021 | 1 October 2018 | Retrogressed913 days |
| March 2023 | 22 July 2022 | 1 April 2021 | Retrogressed477 days |
| December 2022 | Current | 22 July 2022 | Retrogressed from Current |
| October 2015 | not published | Current | First published |
How to read this page
What a priority date is
A priority date is the date that fixes your place in the queue for an immigrant visa number. For most family-sponsored categories it is the date the petition was filed; for employment-based categories that require labour certification, it is the date that certification was filed. It is printed on the I-797 receipt or approval notice. Your priority date does not move — the cut-off moves toward it.
Congress caps how many immigrant visas may be issued each year, both in total per category and per country of chargeability. When more people want a category than the cap allows, a queue forms, and State publishes a cut-off date each month: the priority date it has reached. If your priority date is earlier than the cut-off, your turn has come in that chart.
Why India has its own column
Chargeability is normally your country of birth — not your citizenship or where you live. State gives India its own column because demand from applicants chargeable there exceeds the per-country limit, so its queue is tracked separately and its cut-offs are usually further behind than the "all other countries" column. Applicants from countries without their own column are all counted together in that column instead.
The two charts are not interchangeable
Final Action Dates is when a visa can actually be issued or a green card approved. Dates for Filing is when the application may be submitted; it is usually the earlier and more optimistic of the two, and being past it does not mean a visa can be issued. Which chart U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will accept for adjustment-of-status filings is announced by USCIS each month and is not decided by State or by this site. The Dates for Filing chart was introduced in October 2015 and does not exist for any earlier bulletin.
What Current and Unavailable mean
Current (printed C) means there is no backlog at all: every priority date in the category is being acted on. Unavailable (printed U) means no visas are being issued in the category at all that month — usually because the annual limit has been reached. Neither is a date, and neither can be compared to one, so this site never plots them on a date axis and never projects from them.
Retrogression: the cut-off can move backward
A cut-off is not a promise and does not only move forward. When more people apply than the annual limit allows — often after a period of rapid advancement draws in filings — State pulls the cut-off back to an earlier date. This is called retrogression, and it can undo years of progress in a single bulletin. It has happened 359 times across the whole published record this site holds. The largest on record is F3 for Mexico in August 2006, which moved back 12.79 years in one month. Retrogressions on this page are marked on the chart with a ▼ mark and listed in the movement tables with a ↓ glyph — never by colour alone.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the EB-4 priority date cut-off for India in the July 2026 Visa Bulletin?
- The Final Action Dates cut-off is 15 September 2022 and the Dates for Filing cut-off is 1 January 2023. State printed those cells as "15SEP22" and "01JAN23". A priority date earlier than 15 September 2022 has been reached in the Final Action chart.
- What is the difference between Final Action Dates and Dates for Filing for EB-4?
- They answer different questions and they are not interchangeable. Final Action Dates is when a visa can actually be issued or a green card approved. Dates for Filing is when the application may be submitted — it is usually the earlier and more optimistic of the two, and being past it does not mean a visa can be issued. For EB-4 and India in the July 2026 bulletin they read 15 September 2022 and 1 January 2023 respectively. Which chart U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services accepts for adjustment-of-status filings is announced by USCIS each month and is not decided by this site. The Dates for Filing chart did not exist before October 2015.
- What is a priority date?
- A priority date is the date that fixes your place in the queue for a visa number. For most family-sponsored and employment-based categories it is the date the petition was filed with the government (for employment categories requiring labour certification, it is the date that certification was filed). It is printed on the I-797 receipt or approval notice. The Visa Bulletin publishes a cut-off date each month for each category and country of chargeability; if your priority date is earlier than the cut-off, your turn has come in that chart. Your priority date never changes on its own — the cut-off moves toward it.
- Has the EB-4 cut-off for India ever moved backward?
- Yes. Moving backward is called retrogression, and it happens when more people apply in a category than the annual limit allows, forcing State to pull the cut-off back to an earlier date. This combination has retrogressed 13 times in the published record — 10 in the Final Action Dates chart and 3 in the Dates for Filing chart. The largest was in April 2023, when the Final Action cut-off moved back from 1 March 2021 to 1 September 2018 — 912 days, or about 2.5 years, in a single bulletin.
- When will a priority date in EB-4 become current for India?
- Nobody can tell you that, and this site does not claim to. What can be measured is the pace: over the trailing published bulletins the Final Action Dates cut-off has advanced by an average of about 89.6 days per bulletin. The tool on this page projects the published cut-off of 15 September 2022 forward at that pace to estimate which bulletin would reach a given priority date. That is an estimate and assumes the pace holds. It is not a prediction and not a guarantee: cut-off dates routinely stall, and they can move backward without warning. This is not legal advice.
- Where does this EB-4 history come from, and how far back does it go?
- Every figure is the one the U.S. Department of State printed in its monthly Visa Bulletin, kept alongside the exact cell text it came from. This page carries 284 Final Action Dates bulletins back to December 2001 and 130 Dates for Filing bulletins back to October 2015. The Visa Bulletin is a work of the U.S. Government and is in the public domain (17 U.S.C. section 105). 5 months are absent from the public record in that span (March 2009, September 2009, October 2009, November 2009, October 2012); they are shown as a break in the chart and are never filled in from a neighbouring month.
Source and method
Every figure on this page is read from the U.S. Department of State's monthly Visa Bulletin — the July 2026 edition for the current cut-offs, and each bulletin's own edition for the history. The Visa Bulletin is a work of the U.S. Government prepared by federal employees in the course of their duties, and is therefore in the public domain under 17 U.S.C. §105. This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the U.S. Department of State or any government agency.
This page carries 414 published cut-off cells for EB-4 / India and 44 recorded changes across both charts. Each cell is stored with the exact text State printed for it (the 15SEP22 shown above is the source's own), so every figure here is traceable back to the bulletin it came from.
5 months in the December 2001 to July 2026 span are absent from the public record — March 2009, September 2009, October 2009, November 2009, October 2012. They are recorded as gaps and shown as breaks in the charts above, never filled in from a neighbouring month.
Data version visa-bulletin-derived-v1 · 291 bulletins, December 2001 to July 2026 · Next monthly bulletin. The State Department publishes one bulletin per month, typically mid-month for the following month; past bulletins are immutable once published.