Breaking Down the July 2025 Visa Bulletin: What the Priority Dates Mean for Your Green Card Journey

Are you stuck in the green card waiting game? The July 2025 Visa Bulletin brings hope and frustration, depending on your country of origin and preference category.

These monthly updates are so helpful to planning your immigration journey, if you know how to parse them. Let's explore what the latest bulletin reveals about visa number allocation and what it means for your path to permanent residency.

Overview of the July 2025 Visa Bulletin

The U.S. Department of State released the Visa Bulletin For July 2025, which determines when green card applicants can move forward with their immigration process.

For employment-based categories, we're seeing some limited progress:

China's EB-1 priority workers category moved forward one week to November 15, 2022
China's EB-2 advanced degree professionals advanced two weeks to December 15, 2020
Rest of World and Mexico categories for EB-3 and Other Workers progressed from February 8, 2023, to April 1, 2023

Unfortunately, Indian nationals continue to face minimal movement in key categories:

EB-1 remains at February 15, 2022
EB-2 stays fixed at January 1, 2013
EB-3 moved only slightly from April 15, 2013, to April 22, 2013

The EB-4, Religious Workers, and EB Green Card Trends 2025 and EB-5 Immigrant Investors categories show no changes for any country this month.

These modest adjustments reflect careful management of visa number allocation and existing backlogs. If you're waiting for your priority date to become current, continuing to monitor these monthly bulletins is essential for planning your immigration timeline.

Changes in Employment-Based Green Card Categories

The July 2025 Visa Bulletin shows varied movement across employment-based categories. For Chinese nationals, we're seeing incremental progress with EB-1 priority workers advancing one week to November 15, 2022, and EB-2 advanced degree professionals moving forward two weeks to December 15, 2020. Chinese EB-3 skilled workers now stands at December 1, 2020.

Indian applicants continue to face significant waiting periods with minimal progress. While EB-1 remains fixed at February 15, 2022, and EB-2 stays at January 1, 2013, there's only a slight week-long advance in EB-3 to April 22, 2013.

Applicants from other countries will see more substantial forward movement in certain categories. The Rest of World and Mexico EB-3 and Other Workers classifications advanced nearly two months to April 1, 2023, while EB-2 for these regions holds steady at October 15, 2023.

Philippine EB-3 applicants face continued delays with no advancement this month. Similarly, all countries show no movement in EB-4 Special Immigrants, Religious Workers, and EB-5 Investor categories.

These priority date progressions directly affect when you can file or receive approval for your employment-based green card application.

Impact on Immigrant Visa Applicants

What do these changes mean for applicants? The modest forward movement brings mixed news depending on your country of origin and preference category.

Chinese nationals in EB-1 and EB-2 categories will see slightly reduced wait times thanks to the small priority date advancements. If you're applying from China, these incremental steps forward might allow you to proceed with your application sooner than expected.

For applicants from most countries (Rest of World) and Mexico in the EB-3 and Other Workers categories, the nearly two-month jump represents a meaningful improvement. If your priority date falls between February and April 2023, you should prepare your documents for filing.

Indian applicants continue to face the most challenging outlook. With EB-1 and EB-2 dates essentially frozen and only a one-week advancement in EB-3, the backlog remains substantial. If you're an Indian national in these categories, you'll need to maintain patience as progress continues at this slow pace.

Philippine EB-3 applicants see no movement this month, which means continued waiting periods with no immediate relief. Similarly, if you're applying in any EB-4 or EB-5 category, your timeline remains unchanged from the previous Visa Bulletin.

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