USCIS Sets May 2025 Adjustment of Status Filing Charts for the Visa Bulletin

Sheetal A. Patel of Pasricha & Patel, LLC, explains the adjustment of status filing charts for the Visa Bulletin

https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-processes-and-procedures/visa-availability-priority-dates/when-to-file-your-adjustment-of-status-application-for-family-sponsored-or-employment-based-112

With the U.S. Department of State (“DOS”)’s publication of its May 2025 visa bulletin, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has decided to continue to use the Final Action Dates for Employment-Based Adjustment of Status Applications (Chart A).  Meanwhile, USCIS has decided to continue to follow the Dates for Filing for Family-Sponsored Adjustment of Status Applications table (Chart B).  Please refer to the sections below for specific discussions about the visa availability date movements and trends under both the employment-based immigrant visa petitions, as well as the family-based immigrant visa petitions.  In the meantime, EB-4 preference category remains ‘unavailable’, and will stay that way for the rest of fiscal year 2025. Finally, the EB-5 preference category will retrogress for Indian nationals in the May 2025 visa bulletin due to overwhelming demand.

Employment-based Immigrant Visa Categories:

• As has been the case for the last few years, USCIS and the Department of State are doing their best to manage the demand and usage of employment visa numbers, while fully recognizing that there is overwhelming demand, which resulted in the visa numbers in this category being exhausted and used up in late August to early September of 2024 in the last fiscal year. 

USCIS is keeping the use of the Final Action Dates for Employment-Based Adjustment of Status Applications (chart A) and accepting applications in all employment-based categories based on actual visa availability.  This continues to be clear indication to those applicants who have been waiting for quite some time to see any meaningful movements in the visa categories.  It means the USCIS will need time to catch up first and process all the I-485 adjustment of status applications that were filed with USCIS in the most recent few months.  Specifically, EB-1 India’s filing date remains unchanged on February 15, 2022 (it was on February 1, 2022 in the March 2025 visa bulletin).  China’s EB-1 date remains unchanged on November 8, 2022.  With one exception, there were no forward movements in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories in May 2025 for both countries.  Specifically, EB-2 India’s visa availability remains steady on January 1, 2013, and as for EB-3, it moved up to April 15, 2013.  China’s EB-2 is unmoved on October 1, 2020, and its EB-3 also remained on November 1, 2020. 

• Employment-based first preference category (EB-1) (in the Final Action Dates table):
  • There are no movements in the EB-1 cutoff dates for May 2025.  For India, the visa availability date remains on February 15, 2022. 
  • China’s visa cutoff date also remains on November 8, 2022.  It is unchanged from the April 2025 visa bulletin.
  • Meanwhile, for ‘World’, and Mexico, and Philippines, EB-1 continues to be Current/Available.

• Employment-based second preference category (EB-2)(in the Final Action Dates table):
  • The visa availability date for EB-2 for India stayed the same on January 1, 2013.  It is still not clear if there will be any more significant or major movements in the next few months of FY 2025 visa bulletin though.  But any forward movement in this category is certainly quite welcome news.  This certainly is a category that needs further monitoring.
  • For China’s visa preference category:   the visa availability date also stayed on October 1, 2020.  It was on May 8, 2020 in the March 2025 visa bulletin, and it was in April 2025 that the date moved to October 1, 2020.
  • There is also no movement in the EB-2 visa category across all other countries and regions in the May 2025 visa bulletin.  All countries, and Mexico, and the Philippines, remains on June 22, 2023.  

As already mentioned above, due to the strong demand for employment-based visas overall this past fiscal year 2024, Department of State will continue to do its best to try to hold the line in visa number usage, even now in the midst of FY 2025.  That appears to be the reason why the USCIS has chosen to use the Final Action Dates table.  It is not clear if there will be any further major movements in these next few months.  This is an area that certainly needs continual monitoring. 

• Employment-based third preference category (EB-3) (in the Final Action Dates table):
  • EB-3 India’s visa availability date moved ahead by two (2) weeks to April 15, 2013.
  • EB-3 China’s visa availability date remains unchanged on November 1, 2020.  It was on August 1, 2020 in the March 2025 visa bulletin.  So, this category’s visa numbers are seeing improvements earlier, but it appears to have plateaued.
  • EB-3 world’s visa availability date also remains on January 1, 2023.  The same date is shown for Mexico and Philippines too.   
  • In the EB-3 Other Workers (EW) category, there are no forward movements for Rest of the World countries.  It remains on May 22, 2021.  India moved ahead to April 15, 2013.  China’s date stayed on April 1, 2017.  Mexico’s visa availability date also stayed on May 22, 2021.  There was also no movement for the Philippines, as it stayed on May 22, 2021.
  • As the Department of State has been warning this for the past year, due to high demands for all visa numbers from all regions of the world, the Department of State will continue to exercise maximum control to manage the visa number usage, even in the middle months of FY 2025.  This is a situation that needs to be monitored carefully by Department of State, and they will make any necessary adjustments as needed in the coming months.

• Employment-based fourth preference category (EB-4):
  • On February 28, 2025, U.S. Department of State has announced that due to overwhelming demand and use throughout the first half of fiscal year 2025, it has exhausted all the visa numbers in this preference category and for the rest of the year, and there would be no visas that can be issued in these categories for the remainder of the fiscal year 2025.  The annual limits will reset with the start of the new fiscal year (FY 2026) on October 1, 2025.  So, this is certainly a drastic measure to take, but it does appear that the Department of State and the USCIS had no other choice here.

• Employment-based fifth preference category (EB-5) (referring to the Final Action Date chart):
  • There is great demand and numbers usage by applicants in India and China.  In fact, the Department of State has decided that for the May 2025 visa bulletin, the EB-5 date for Indian nationals is retrogressing by six (6) months, back to May 1, 2019.  In the April 2025 visa bulletin, EB-5 India’s visa available date was November 1, 2019.
  • Meanwhile, for China, the date stayed on January 22, 2014 - it was on July 15, 2016 in the March 2025 visa bulletin.
  • For the other countries, and the rest of the world, the visa continues to be available for the nationals from those countries and regions.
  • Department of State also warns that because of the overwhelming demand in this EB-5 visa category in general, there may become necessary to establish a final action date for applicants chargeable to all other countries, especially if the demand continues to grow at a rapid pace that it may become oversubscribed.  Department of States note that this situation must be carefully monitored for the upcoming months.
  • On the EB-5 immigrant investor visa category, a reminder once again to readers that DOS’s visa bulletin for EB-5 preference category has also been updated to reflect the new provisions of the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act (RIA). 
  • It now has two (2) pools of visa numbers within the EB-5 category.  One is reserved for certain set-aside categories (Rural, High Unemployment, and Infrastructure projects), while the remaining available numbers remain ‘unreserved’.
  • Finally, in the Final Action Dates chart for EB5 Set Asides (which covers Rural, and High Unemployment, and Infrastructure areas) for Chinese born and Indian born applicants as well as applicants from around the world continue to remain ‘Current’. 

• Family-based Immigrant Visa Categories (with discussions also touching on the Final Action Dates table):
  • A reminder that DOS continues to use the Dates for Filing for Family-Sponsored Adjustment of Status Applications chart. 
  • But in connection with the actual Final Action Dates table which is the actual visa availability date table to look at, and starting in June 2023, due to the steady usage of the F2A – Spouses and Children of Permanent Residents – DOS had to set a final action date for this category in order to maintain steady availability of this particular visa category for the upcoming months.
  • So, in the Final Action Date for F2A- India for May 2025 bulletin board it did not move and it remains on January 1, 2022.  All other countries, remain unchanged:  China is on January 1, 2022, along with the rest of the world and the Philippines. Mexico also remains unchanged – on May 15, 2021.
  • In the May 2025 Final Acton Dates for Family-Sponsored Preference Cases, the various regions have visa availability dates of varying cutoff dates.
  • As early as back in the August 2023 visa bulletin, the DOS had also explained that the F2B – Unmarried Son and Daughters (21 years of age or older) of Permanent Resident, is experiencing steady usage throughout the FY2023 and “it may become necessary to retrogress the final action dates for Rest of World countries, India, and China in the coming months to keep number use within the FY-2023 annual limit.”  So far, that has not happened yet.
  • In fact, for the latest May 2025 visa bulletin, U.S. Department of State has maintained dates in F2B as follows:
    • India remains on July 22, 2016.
    • China also remains on July 22, 2016.
    • The rest of the world also remains on July 22, 2016.
    • Mexico remains on January 1, 2006 and the Philippines moved ahead to February 8, 2012 - it was on January 22, 2012 in the April 2025 visa bulletin.
  • There were no movements in the F-3 dates:
    • India – April 1, 2011
    • China – April 1, 2011.
    • The rest of the world remains on April 1, 2011.
    • Mexico also remains on January 15, 2001.
    • The Philippines moved significantly to September 22, 2003.
  • In the F-4 (brother and sister of U.S. citizen) category, there were some major movements under this category:
    • India – remains on June 15, 2006
    • China – moved ahead to January 1, 2008 – a jump of five (5) months
    • The rest of the world also moved ahead to January 1, 2008
    • Mexico remains on March 15, 2001
    • The Philippines moved ahead to June 1, 2005, which is another healthy progress from April 2025 visa bulletin date of January 1, 2005

Even in the middle part of Fiscal Year 2025, the U.S. Department of State is still doing its best to try and keep the various employment-based visa numbers in steady movement and to not have the visa numbers be used up too quickly.  But with still high demand for these visas, Department of State will continue to be cautious in how it sets its monthly visa number goals.

It will be interesting to see if India will still have steady movements in the EB-3 category in the coming months, because it is not certain if the Department of State will have enough leeway to move ahead with more visa movement advancements starting in October 2024 and through the next few months.  But it will also be important to keep track of how USCIS decides to either use Dates of Filing or Final Action Dates table as we move further into FY 2025 and through the upcoming few months.

For this key reason, we do encourage readers to check in this space regularly for any further updates.

Pasricha & Patel’s Immigration Department has extensive experience in handling business and personal immigration matters. Our team is happy to speak with you on your specific issue.