Many Indian Green Card applicants see a sudden status change pertaining to their case.
Several Indian Green Card applicants reported an unexpected change in their status online which says their case "requires USCIS to send a notice". Immigration attorney Rahul Reddy said this has led to a great deal of anxiety but this is most probably a glitch in the system and there is no real reason to panic. Reddy said most of the affected applicants are Indian nationals in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories and many have their priority dates from 2014 and 2015. Families waiting for their Green Cards for years are worried that something has gone wrong with their applications now but this might not be the case. "When USCIS has a genuine concern about an individual application, it acts on that specific case. What we are seeing now is the same status message appearing across thousands of pending cases at the same time, regardless of priority date, filing date, or case history. Many of these applicants have final action dates that are not even current, which means USCIS cannot approve or deny their cases on the merits right now. A status change of this scale and uniformity reflects a system-level update, not a problem with your file," Reddy said. USCIS has not announced any change in processing of Green Cards that might have caused the status change, Reddy said urging Indian Green Card applicants to not pay heed to social media speculations. "Continue to maintain your status, keep your employment and contact information up to date, and do not file anything with USCIS in response to this online message alone," Reddy said. "If a physical notice does arrive in the mail, stay calm and read it carefully. Many notices are routine. If a notice asks for documents or sets a response deadline, share it with your attorney promptly so a timely and complete response can be prepared. Deadlines on USCIS notices are strict, and a missed deadline can cause real problems even when the underlying case is strong," Reddy added.
Delay in October visa bulletin
The Department of State has not yet officially released the October 2026 visa bulletin. October marks the start of Fiscal Year 2027 when the annual employment-based and family-sponsored visa numbers will be reset. Legal consultant Bhumireddy Sai Srinivas Reddy said he believed that the visa bulletin has been delayed because of the reversal of the 75-country visa pause. "On August 21, Judge Vargas ruled that the 75-country visa freeze was illegal. She ordered the State Department to reconsider 43,000+ visa applications that were denied solely because of that freeze. But the government is fighting back. They asked Judge Vargas to pause her order while they appeal and gave her a deadline: September 25," he said. "The State Department can't finalize the October bulletin without knowing what's going to happen to those 43,000 cases. If the appeals court pauses the order, the cases stay on hold visa numbers stay tight, priority dates move slowly. If the court rejects the pause, 43,000 cases flood into adjudication visa numbers expand, priority dates could jump. The State Department is literally waiting to know which scenario is happening before they can publish accurate cutoff dates," he said, adding that it was his personal analysis of the situation.
