The US State Department released the Visa Bulletin for July 2026, showing a two-week advancement in the EB-3 India final action date while the EB-2 India category remains unavailable due to the per-country annual cap being exhausted.
For Indian nationals in the EB-2 category, the bulletin delivers no movement. The cut-off date is listed as unavailable, meaning no green card numbers are being allocated to EB-2 India applicants in July regardless of their priority date. This outcome, while expected by immigration attorneys tracking the annual cap depletion, is a significant setback for the large backlog of Indian professionals waiting in that category — many of whom face multi-decade waits under the current quota system.
EB-3 India sees a modest two-week advancement in the final action date. While this is positive movement, the pace remains extremely slow relative to the size of the backlog. Indian nationals in the EB-3 skilled worker and professional subcategories continue to have the longest wait times of any nationality in the employment-based green card system.
USCIS Visa
A significant procedural change also takes effect in July. USCIS has announced it will use the Final Action Dates chart — rather than the Dates for Filing chart — when determining eligibility for adjustment of status applications in the employment-based categories. Previously, USCIS had been using the Dates for Filing chart, which allows applicants to file their I-485 adjustment applications earlier than the Final Action Date. Switching back to the Final Action Dates chart restricts who can file in July, which affects applicants who had been preparing documents in anticipation of filing under the more permissive dates.
The USCIS Visa Bulletin is among the most-searched immigration topics in the US and in diaspora communities worldwide, including Bangladesh, where a significant number of Bangladeshi-Americans and Indian-Americans closely track these updates. The bulletin also affects EB-1 India, which is seeing slight retrogression in July according to analysis by immigration firm Fragomen. Applicants should consult the official State Department visa bulletin for exact dates and confirm filing eligibility with an immigration attorney. The USCIS Android 17 update and other digital tools have made tracking priority dates easier for applicants managing long waits.
The per-country cap that drives these backlogs has been the subject of reform proposals in Congress for years. No legislative fix has passed. Until one does, the July 2026 bulletin is another month of waiting for hundreds of thousands of skilled workers in the queue.
