USCIS May 2026 I-485 Inventory: India EB-2 Pending Rises 2,664, January 2015 Priority Dates Reach 747
Newer data: the latest USCIS I-485 inventory analysis.
USCIS has published its employment-based I-485 pending inventory as of May 6, 2026. This is the report that shows how many adjustment-of-status applications are sitting in the USCIS queue, broken down by country, preference category, and priority date year. May reversed the trend that had defined every USCIS report since January 2025 for India EB-2, and produced the largest single-month increase in the total queue since this monthly series began.
Source: USCIS "Pending Applications for Employment-Based Preference Categories as of May 6, 2026" and the prior April 3, 2026 snapshot, from the USCIS Immigration and Citizenship Data page. Figures cover EB-1, EB-2, EB-3 and EB-5 for India, China, Mexico, Philippines, and Rest of World. Not legal advice.
India EB-2: the decline ends
India EB-2 pending applications rose to 28,444 in May, up 2,664 from 25,780 in April. That ends a run of declines through every USCIS report since January 2025 and is its first increase in any of those reports.
The direction change matters more than the size. A falling inventory in a category that is backlogged past its filing cutoff generally means applications are being adjudicated faster than new ones arrive. A rising inventory means the opposite, and in this case the reason is visible in the priority date breakdown below.
The January 2015 cohort: under 10 applications became 747
April's report was the first to show any 2015 priority dates at all, with fewer than 10 applications (USCIS does not publish counts under 10). In May that number is 747, and every one of them carries a January 2015 priority date.
This is the Dates for Filing chart working as designed. India EB-2's filing cutoff moved to January 15, 2015 in the April bulletin, and USCIS accepted filings under that chart in April, so applicants with a January 2015 priority date became eligible to file and did so. From May, USCIS required the Final Action chart. Nothing later than January 2015 appears anywhere in the report, because nobody with a later priority date has been permitted to file an I-485 yet.
That last point is worth holding onto, because it shapes how this data can be read. The inventory ends at January 2015 not because demand ends there, but because the filing cutoff does.
Why 2013 fell while 2014 and 2015 grew
The India EB-2 movement by priority date year tells a clearer story than the total:
| Priority date year | April | May | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 and earlier | 684 | 638 | -46 |
| 2013 | 7,670 | 6,848 | -822 |
| 2014 | 17,421 | 20,211 | +2,790 |
| 2015 | under 10 | 747 | about +740 |
The front of the queue is draining and the back is filling at a faster rate. The 2013 cohort cleared 822, which is consistent with adjudication continuing on the oldest applications. Meanwhile 2014 grew by 2,790 and January 2015 added about 740.
For anyone with a 2014 or January 2015 priority date, the group ahead of you got smaller. The 2014 and January 2015 growth is people who were already in line filing their I-485, not new people ahead of you.
India EB-3 followed the same pattern
India EB-3 rose to 16,493, up 409. Its 2015 cohort went from under 10 to 131, again entirely January 2015, and its 2013 cohort fell by 109 while 2014 grew by 408. Smaller numbers, identical shape.
Rest of World EB-3: the largest single-month move in this series
The headline number for the report as a whole is not India. Rest of World EB-3 grew from 18,002 to 30,103, an increase of 12,101 in one month. That single line accounts for well over half of the entire increase in the employment-based queue.
EB-3 rose broadly: Mexico EB-3 added 1,149 and Philippines EB-3 added 375. Rest of World EB-1, by contrast, fell 1,248.
A jump of this size in one category and one month is worth treating with some caution until the June snapshot confirms it. It is consistent with a period of heavy EB-3 filing while cutoffs were favourable, but a single month is not a trend.
Every country and category
The full matrix, April to May, including all four EB-5 sub-categories. Green means the queue shrank, red means it grew.
| Country | Category | April | May | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| India | EB-1 | 20,850 | 22,052 | +1,202 |
| EB-2 | 25,780 | 28,444 | +2,664 | |
| EB-3 | 16,084 | 16,493 | +409 | |
| EB-5 Unreserved | 478 | 428 | -50 | |
| EB-5 Rural | 3,585 | 3,822 | +237 | |
| EB-5 High Unemp. | 2,557 | 2,685 | +128 | |
| EB-5 Infra. | 43 | 63 | +20 | |
| China | EB-1 | 5,889 | 6,972 | +1,083 |
| EB-2 | 5,197 | 5,036 | -161 | |
| EB-3 | 5,000 | 4,662 | -338 | |
| EB-5 Unreserved | 2,878 | 2,798 | -80 | |
| EB-5 Rural | 3,596 | 3,702 | +106 | |
| EB-5 High Unemp. | 3,899 | 3,935 | +36 | |
| EB-5 Infra. | 20 | 35 | +15 | |
| Mexico | EB-1 | 1,942 | 1,845 | -97 |
| EB-2 | 1,698 | 1,630 | -68 | |
| EB-3 | 2,506 | 3,655 | +1,149 | |
| EB-5 Unreserved | 176 | 180 | +4 | |
| EB-5 Rural | 85 | 90 | +5 | |
| EB-5 High Unemp. | 137 | 142 | +5 | |
| Philippines | EB-1 | 429 | 450 | +21 |
| EB-2 | 639 | 617 | -22 | |
| EB-3 | 1,467 | 1,842 | +375 | |
| EB-5 Rural | 10 | 10 | +0 | |
| EB-5 High Unemp. | 65 | 65 | +0 | |
| Rest of World | EB-1 | 31,868 | 30,620 | -1,248 |
| EB-2 | 35,350 | 38,233 | +2,883 | |
| EB-3 | 18,002 | 30,103 | +12,101 | |
| EB-5 Unreserved | 919 | 899 | -20 | |
| EB-5 Rural | 653 | 700 | +47 | |
| EB-5 High Unemp. | 1,847 | 1,864 | +17 | |
| EB-5 Infra. | 40 | 40 | +0 | |
| All countries, all categories | 193,689 | 214,112 | +20,423 | |
EB-5 moved very little anywhere. India EB-5 Rural rose 237 and China EB-5 Rural rose 106, but the set-aside categories are small enough that these are not meaningful shifts in the overall picture.
Where the Rest of World EB-3 surge actually came from
Breaking the 12,101 increase down by priority date year shows it is concentrated almost entirely in recent dates:
| Priority date year | April | May | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2,336 | 4,007 | +1,671 |
| 2023 | 9,544 | 11,704 | +2,160 |
| 2024 | 221 | 5,699 | +5,478 |
| 2025 | 50 | 808 | +758 |
| 2026 | 15 | 2,182 | +2,167 |
Rest of World EB-3's Dates for Filing chart was Current in the April 2026 bulletin, and USCIS accepted filings under that chart in April, so applicants with recent priority dates could file as soon as they were eligible. Its final action date was June 1, 2024 in both the April and May bulletins. The 2024 column going from 221 to 5,699 in one month is that group arriving.
China: quiet, and shrinking at the front
China EB-2 fell 161 to 5,036 and China EB-3 fell 338 to 4,662. Both declines came from the 2020 and 2021 cohorts, which is where their cutoffs sit. China EB-1 was the exception, rising 1,083.
The total queue in context
From October 2025 to May 2026 the employment-based inventory grew in every month but one, March to April 2026:
- October 2025: 148,696
- December 2025: 184,075
- February 2026: 192,734
- March 2026: 194,395
- April 2026: 193,689
- May 2026: 214,112
The queue was close to flat from January through April, moving within about 4,000 across four months. May added 20,423 on its own.
What this does and does not tell you
This report counts applications already filed with USCIS. Each pending I-485 represents one person. It is a picture of who is already in line, not of total demand.
Two limits are worth stating plainly:
- It does not show anyone who cannot file yet. For India EB-2 and EB-3, the data stops at January 2015 because the filing cutoff stops there. A large population holds approved I-140s with later priority dates and does not appear anywhere in this report.
- A shrinking inventory is not automatically good news, and a growing one is not automatically bad. Inventory falls when applications are approved and also when fewer people can file. It rises when a cutoff advances and lets a new group in, which is what happened to the January 2015 cohort this month.
If you want to see where a specific priority date sits against this data, our estimator at greencardclock.com/priority-date uses the May snapshot and shows how many applications sit ahead of your date, along with the supply assumptions behind each scenario.
This article is for general information only. Figures are taken from USCIS published data as of May 6, 2026 and the prior April 3, 2026 snapshot. Inventory counts change monthly and USCIS may revise them. Consult a licensed immigration attorney about your own case.
Correction (October 27, 2026): The April report printed "D" (a count under 10) for January 2015 in India EB-2 and EB-3, so the April figure for that group is now shown as under 10, not 5. Those January 2015 filings came in April, when USCIS accepted filings under the Dates for Filing chart; from May it required the Final Action chart. The Rest of World EB-3 paragraph used the August bulletin's final action date: in April and May 2026 it was June 1, 2024, and the filings came through the Dates for Filing chart, which was Current for Rest of World EB-3 in April 2026, a month USCIS accepted filings under that chart. The total did not grow every month: it dipped from 194,395 in March to 193,689 in April, and March is now listed. India EB-2's decline before May was not seven months long: it had declined in every USCIS report since January 2025, so the title and text no longer give a count. The India EB-2 table now includes the 60 people USCIS lists under Prior Years, so it adds up to the totals. A sentence that said growth in the 2014 and January 2015 groups lengthens the wait for newer dates is replaced: those people were already ahead of later dates. EB-3 figures in this post include Other Workers; most of Rest of World EB-3's 2022 increase was Other Workers. Pending applicants are counted as people, since every dependent files their own I-485.
Not legal advice.