Green Card Backlog Tracker
EB-5 Regional Center Priority Date for China
Updated for March 2022 · 6.2-year backlog · +214 days moved in 12 months
This page tracks the EB-5 Regional Center (Investor – Regional Center (legacy)) cutoff date for applicants chargeable to China, using the chart USCIS designated for adjustment-of-status filers each month. History runs from November 2015 to March 2022 — 77 monthly bulletins.
Where the line is right now
EB-5 Regional Center · China · March 2022
December 15, 2015
The March 2022 Dates for Filing chart listed December 15, 2015 for China. A priority date on that day itself was not early enough. Final action for this row was unauthorized, so no visa number was available.
The State Department listed this regional center row on its own through the April 2022 bulletin. In March 2022 the Dates for Filing cutoff for China was December 15, 2015, and final action for the row was unauthorized, so no visa number was available. Starting with the May 2022 bulletin, those visas are inside EB-5 Unreserved. Reserved rural, high-unemployment, and infrastructure set-asides are separate rows and are not tracked here. This page stops at March 2022.
How fast the line is moving
| Window | Cutoff then | Cutoff now | Total movement | Average pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Last 6 months | December 15, 2015 | December 15, 2015 | +0 days | +0 days/month |
| Last 12 months | May 15, 2015 | December 15, 2015 | +214 days | +18 days/month |
| Last 24 months | May 1, 2015 | December 15, 2015 | +228 days | +12 days/month |
At the pace of the last 12 months — about 18 days of movement per month — the line would take roughly 11 more years to clear its current 6.2-year gap. That is arithmetic on past movement, not a projection: demand, per-country caps and annual visa supply all change.
Movement is measured only between months that used the same chart type. USCIS publishes one designated chart per month, so comparing a Final Action cutoff against a Dates for Filing cutoff would overstate or understate movement. Months where the chart switched are excluded from these figures.
Has it moved backward?
This category has not retrogressed for China in the period covered (November 2015 to March 2022). The cutoff has only held steady or moved forward.
The last 24 bulletins
| Bulletin month | Cutoff date | Chart in use |
|---|---|---|
| March 2022 | December 15, 2015 | Dates for Filing |
| February 2022 | December 15, 2015 | Dates for Filing |
| January 2022 | December 15, 2015 | Dates for Filing |
| December 2021 | December 15, 2015 | Dates for Filing |
| November 2021 | December 15, 2015 | Dates for Filing |
| October 2021 | December 15, 2015 | Dates for Filing |
| September 2021 | Unavailable | Final Action Dates |
| August 2021 | Unavailable | Final Action Dates |
| July 2021 | Unavailable | Final Action Dates |
| June 2021 | September 15, 2015 | Final Action Dates |
| May 2021 | August 15, 2015 | Final Action Dates |
| April 2021 | August 15, 2015 | Final Action Dates |
| March 2021 | August 15, 2015 | Final Action Dates |
| February 2021 | August 15, 2015 | Final Action Dates |
| January 2021 | August 15, 2015 | Final Action Dates |
| December 2020 | December 15, 2015 | Dates for Filing |
| November 2020 | December 15, 2015 | Dates for Filing |
| October 2020 | December 15, 2015 | Dates for Filing |
| September 2020 | August 15, 2015 | Final Action Dates |
| August 2020 | August 8, 2015 | Final Action Dates |
| July 2020 | July 22, 2015 | Final Action Dates |
| June 2020 | July 15, 2015 | Final Action Dates |
| May 2020 | July 1, 2015 | Final Action Dates |
| April 2020 | May 15, 2015 | Final Action Dates |
The table above is the last 24 bulletins. Pace and retrogression counts use the full series back to November 2015 — 77 monthly bulletins.
Who is in this line
The people in this row were regional-center investors, categories I5 and R5. Direct investors were on a separate row. The May 2022 bulletin folded both into EB-5 Unreserved. The Chinese community guides show where people born in China have settled in the U.S.
What a priority date actually is
Your priority date is the day USCIS accepted the investor petition, Form I-526 or I-526E. It is your place in line, and it never changes.
Every month the State Department publishes a cutoff date for each category and country of birth. A visa number is available only under the Final Action chart, and only when the priority date is earlier than that cutoff. A Dates for Filing cutoff controls filing, not visa issuance. Because the law caps how many green cards any one country can receive per year, applicants born in high-demand countries wait far longer than the worldwide line for the exact same category.
Country of birth is what matters — not citizenship, not where you live now. That single fact is why two colleagues doing identical work at the same company can be years apart in the same queue.
This page is information, not legal advice. It reports published government data and nothing more. Cutoff dates move unpredictably and individual cases turn on facts this page cannot know. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed immigration attorney.
Sources
Cutoff dates from USCIS Adjustment of Status Filing Charts, March 2022 edition, which republishes the U.S. Department of State Visa Bulletin. History compiled from 77 monthly USCIS bulletin pages (November 2015–March 2022). Chart type is recorded as published; where a source page did not state it, it is marked rather than assumed. See How We Research.