221(g) Slip Colours: Yellow vs Pink vs White (and Blue, Green) — What Each Means in 2026

Yellow slip vs pink slip vs white slip, in one paragraph

A yellow 221(g) slip means the case needs more time, usually for checks the officer cannot finish at the window; in 2026 that is most often social-media vetting, nothing is usually asked of you, and the tracked cases clear in days to a few weeks. A pink slip means the officer wants something from you or your employer, most often documents or the petition, and the case waits until they arrive. A white slip is the standard printed 221(g) sheet with boxes ticked for whatever applies, and it dominates the 2026 reports. Blue and green are post-specific variants covered below. Colour conventions vary by post, so read the ticked boxes before the colour.

The slip color is the first thing people compare after a 221(g). In 30+ reports that named a color, the 2026 breakdown looks like this:

• White (majority of reports) — the standard 2026 social-media/administrative processing slip. Usually resolves fastest once the email is sent correctly.
• Yellow — additional administrative processing; often no documents requested. Longer, less predictable waits.
• Pink — seen in petition-verification cases (employer/petition questions).
• Blue / Green — rare; typically document requests specific to the case.

Two cautions from the data: the same case type gets different colors at different posts (one Pakistan petition case was called pink in one report and green in another), and color alone predicts less than what was requested. A white slip with a social-media email request behaves very differently from a white slip with “no documents needed — wait for contact”.

Whatever your color: the playbook covers the submission format, and the comparator tells you if your wait is still in the normal band.