Indian applicants in the EB-2 green card category are facing a major setback after the U.S. State Department confirmed that all available Employment-Based Second Preference (EB-2) immigrant visas for India in fiscal year 2026 have been fully utilized.
As a result, no further EB-2 visas can be issued to Indian applicants until the new fiscal year begins on October 1, 2026. The State Department stated that embassies and consulates will not be able to process or issue visas in this category for the remainder of the current fiscal year.
According to the official update, the annual visa limits will reset with the start of FY 2027 on October 1, after which visa processing for eligible applicants is expected to resume.
The Immigration and Nationality Act caps total employment-based green cards at 140,000 per year, with EB-2 receiving 28.6% of that allocation globally. However, a per-country cap restricts any single nation to around 7% of the total, resulting in roughly 2,800 EB-2 visas per year for India. With demand far exceeding supply, the quota is typically exhausted much earlier than the end of the fiscal year.
At present, the EB-2 Final Action Date for India stands at September 1, 2013, meaning only applicants who filed on or before that date are eligible for processing. Even those eligible will now face delays in final approvals until visa numbers become available again in the new fiscal year.
While USCIS may continue to accept certain filings, interviews and approvals are expected to be deferred until the quota resets. The State Department had earlier warned that continued high demand could lead to category unavailability or further retrogression.
With the EB-2 category now officially marked as unavailable for the rest of FY2026, Indian professionals in the queue face another extended wait for progress on their green card applications.
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