EB-2 Visa Numbers for India Run Out for the Rest of FY2026
The State Department says all FY2026 EB-2 immigrant visa numbers for India-born applicants have been exhausted, pausing consular issuance until the fiscal year resets on October 1, 2026.
What Happened
On May 22, 2026, the U.S. Department of State announced that all available Employment-Based Second Preference (EB-2) immigrant visa numbers for applicants born in India have been used up for fiscal year 2026. Under Immigration and Nationality Act sections 203(b)(2) and 202(a)(2), EB-2 visas make up 28.6% of the annual worldwide employment-based visa pool, but no single country can receive more than 7% of the combined employment- and family-based visa totals in a given year. Because Indian nationals file for employment-based green cards at a much higher rate than applicants from most other countries, that 7% cap is typically reached well before the fiscal year ends.
As a result, U.S. embassies and consulates are barred from issuing new EB-2 immigrant visas to India-chargeable applicants for the remainder of FY2026, which runs through September 30, 2026. The per-country limits reset automatically on October 1, 2026, the first day of FY2027, at which point processing is expected to resume.
What It Means
This is not a policy change — it's an annual, mechanical limit that Indian EB-2 applicants have hit before. The per-country cap produces multi-year, and in some cases multi-decade, backlogs for Indian-born applicants in employment-based categories, since the same 7% ceiling applies regardless of how many qualified applicants come from a given country.
For applicants with an approved I-140 and a current priority date who were expecting to receive an immigrant visa or adjust status this summer, the practical effect is a pause: no new EB-2 visa numbers will be available until October. Applicants already in the U.S. pursuing adjustment of status through USCIS, rather than consular processing abroad, may see different timing, since USCIS manages its own allocation within the same annual limits.
We'd encourage affected applicants to treat this as a scheduling delay tied to the federal fiscal year rather than a signal of a broader crackdown, and to confirm their case-specific status through the Visa Bulletin rather than assuming the worst. This article is general information, not legal advice — anyone with a pending EB-2 case should check with a qualified immigration attorney about how the reset affects their specific timeline.
Source
Original — US Department of State
This is original commentary based on the source below, not legal advice. Confirm details with the official source.