On June 16 the law firm Chugh LLP released an analysis of the State Department’s newly published July 2026 Visa Bulletin. The bulletin requires employment-based applicants to use the Final-Action chart, meaning adjustment-of-status filings must fall at or before the listed cutoff dates. Headlining the changes, the EB-1 (priority-workers) category for India retrogresses another two months to 15 October 2022, while EB-1 China advances to 1 June 2023. The heavily backlogged EB-2 India category remains “unavailable,” signaling that no green-card numbers are left this fiscal year. EB-3 India edges forward to 1 January 2014, and EB-3 China climbs to 22 December 2021. For employers, the bulletin’s mid-year squeeze complicates workforce planning: candidates who miss filing windows may need H-1B extensions or L-1 renewals, triggering cost and compliance hurdles. Multinationals should accelerate immigrant-visa sponsorship where priority dates are close and remind traveling employees to carry Advance Parole to avoid abandoning pending I-485s. The Department of State warns that “further retrogression or unavailability may occur” before fiscal-year close on September 30 if demand continues to outstrip annual numerical limits. Companies with large India- or China-born talent pools should prepare messaging to reassure staff and may explore Canada work permits or U.S. E-2 investor visas as stopgaps. Family-sponsored categories see only modest movement, but the bulletin confirms that USCIS will continue using the Final-Action chart for employment-based filings in July, eliminating the more generous Dates-for-Filing option that sometimes opens earlier priority dates.
Source: Chugh LLP
