Moving to the USA from China: Visas, Green Card Backlogs and Where to Apply

No. China is not among the 39 countries restricted by Proclamation 10998 (effective January 1, 2026), and it was not on the 75-country immigrant visa pause from January 2026.

Changes that do affect Chinese applicants:

• Since August 25, 2026, the State Department has paused immigrant visa interviews at US embassies and consulates worldwide while consular officers are trained on public charge reviews. Scheduled interviews were moved to later dates, and no restart date has been announced as of September 2026. Visitor, student, and temporary work visas are not part of this pause. Details: immigrant visa pause.
• Students. Since September 15, 2026, new F-1 students are admitted until a fixed date instead of for "duration of status", so you may need to file for an extension if your program runs longer. See F-1 fixed admission period. Since 2020, a presidential proclamation has barred F and J visas for certain graduate students and researchers linked to China's military-civil fusion strategy, and students in some sensitive STEM fields face extra security checks (often 221(g) administrative processing).
• H-1B. Since February 27, 2026, the H-1B lottery gives more entries to higher wage levels. A separate $100,000 fee on some new H-1B petitions (from a September 2025 proclamation) is being fought in court, with judges split as of September 2026. See H-1B $100k fee.

Mainland China has no E-1 or E-2 treaty, so Chinese nationals cannot use the treaty investor visa. (Taiwan has its own treaty, which does not apply to PRC passport holders.)

For an overview of every route, see our guide to US immigration and how US immigration works.

Yes. China is not in the Visa Waiver Program, so you need a B-1 or B-2 visa. Many Chinese citizens receive 10-year B visas. If you hold a 10-year B visa in a PRC passport, you must also enroll in the Electronic Visa Update System (EVUS) before travel and update it every two years or when you get a new passport. Without a valid EVUS enrollment, you cannot board a flight to the US. The State Department's guidance is to apply for a visitor or other temporary visa at the US embassy or consulate in the country where you live. Applying elsewhere is possible but can make it harder to show you qualify.

Each country is limited to about 7% of family and employment green cards per year. Because demand from mainland China is high, China-born applicants have their own column in the Visa Bulletin.

• EB-1: China has a backlog, though it is usually shorter than EB-2 and EB-3.
• EB-2 and EB-3: China-born applicants wait several years longer than rest-of-world applicants.
• EB-5: China has had the largest EB-5 backlog for the unreserved category because Chinese investors have filed most EB-5 cases for years. Rural and high-unemployment set-aside categories may move faster. EB-5 grandfathering protection ends on September 30, 2026 (see EB-5 deadline).
• Family: spouses, unmarried children under 21, and parents of US citizens have no annual cap. Other family categories use China dates, usually similar to rest-of-world.

Your chargeability depends on country of birth, not citizenship. People born in Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan are charged to those places, not to mainland China. See priority dates.

Natives of mainland China and Hong Kong were not eligible for DV-2026 because more than 50,000 people from China immigrated to the US in the previous five years. Natives of Macau and Taiwan were eligible. The Diversity Visa (DV) lottery is paused: visa issuance stopped on December 23, 2025, and DV-2027 registration never opened. See DV lottery paused.

The State Department lists these US visa posts in mainland China:

Residents of Hong Kong and Macau apply at the US Consulate General in Hong Kong. Book mainland appointments through the embassy's website. See our visa interview guide.

In China, civil documents for use abroad are issued as notarial certificates (gong zheng shu) by a local Notary Public Office. The State Department's China page lists:

• Police certificate: a notarial certificate of no criminal record, based on a record from the Public Security Bureau. It is required if you are over 16 and lived in China for 6 months or more. Some offices accept online applications or an agent.
• Birth certificate: a notarial birth certificate from the Notary Public Office where you were born or registered.
• Marriage and divorce: notarial marriage and divorce certificates.

Notarial certificates usually come with an English translation attached. You also need police certificates from other countries where you lived for the required period.

The largest Chinese American communities are in California (the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles, especially the San Gabriel Valley) and New York City (Flushing in Queens, Sunset Park in Brooklyn, and Manhattan's Chinatown). Other large communities are in Boston, Seattle, Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and the Washington, DC area. University towns with many Chinese students and researchers also have active Chinese associations.