FY2026 Q1 EB-5 I-485 inventory changes and FY2025 consular visas

I-485 Inventory Update

We now have the first indicator for EB-5 visa issuance in FY2026, thanks to USCIS publishing more I-485 inventory reports (“Pending Applications for Employment-Based Preference Categories”) for November 3, 2025, December 3, 2025, and January 2, 2026.

I take each month’s inventory report and compare it against the previous month, to get a sense of visa activity. For example, the inventory of China Rural I-485 with December 2022 priority dates shows 61 pending forms as of October 2, 2025, down to 53 on November 3rd, 51 on December 3rd, and 50 on January 2nd. I look at those numbers and guess that 11 Rural visas may have been issued in FY2026 Q1 to China-born Rural applicants with December 2022 priority dates.

If net deductions from the I-485 inventory roughly represent visas issued, then over 800 set-aside EB-5 visas were issued through status adjustment in the first three months of FY2026. That’s twice the average quarterly AOS volume for set-asides in FY2025 — a good sign so far as it goes. If FY2026 set-aside visa issuance overall can double last year’s volume, then all available set-aside visas can be used this year. I note, however, that I-485 movement started strong in October and then tapered off in November and December. We shall see what happens next.

As usual, I-485 inventory deductions were spread over a wide range of priority dates — a reminder that the process is not exactly FIFO by priority date. Activity continued to be particularly concentrated in the Rural category, and on India-born applicants. I note that the I-485 inventory does capture some pending Infrastructure applicants, but with numbers small enough to be redacted with the letter “D”. The following table highlights interesting stories in the I-485 data.

Consular Processing Update

Department of State has posted the Monthly Immigrant Visa Issuance report for September 2025, completing FY2025. I am disappointed to see no year-end surge in consular Unreserved visa issuance (which I’d thought might happen considering the year-end Visa Bulletin notes and date movement for China), but excited to see Infrastructure visas finally making the scoreboard.

Note

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