EB-5 Visa Bulletin: How to Read It in 2026

The Visa Bulletin is the State Department's monthly priority-date schedule for every employment- and family-based green card category. For EB-5, it has three sub-categories — Unreserved, Rural Reserved, Urban High-Unemployment Reserved — and four country buckets (China, India, Mexico, Rest of World).

• •Final Action Dates chart = the date you can actually get a green card. If your priority date is earlier than the cutoff, your category is current for your country.
• •Dates for Filing chart = the date USCIS may allow you to file the I-485 (adjustment of status). USCIS announces monthly which chart it accepts for the upcoming month.
• •EB-5 Unreserved (the legacy category): India and China have multi-year backlogs (often 5+ years for India). Rest of World is generally current.
• •EB-5 Rural Reserved (20% set-aside): generally current for all countries in 2026, including India and China — a structural advantage post-RIA.
• •EB-5 Urban High-Unemployment Reserved (10% set-aside): currently flowing but with periodic retrogression for the heaviest-demand countries.
• •Reading the bulletin: priority date = the date USCIS receives your I-526E. Your priority date is locked at I-526E filing.

For investors from India or China in 2026, the Rural Reserved set-aside is the single biggest reason to file Rural over Unreserved or Urban — multi-year wait collapses to current visa availability.