Washington, Sept 2026 : Indian applicants seeking employment-based first-preference green cards in the United States could face another major setback, with the State Department warning that the EB-1 category may become unavailable within weeks due to heavy demand before the end of the US fiscal year.
In its September Visa Bulletin, the State Department said increased demand and the use of EB-1 immigrant visa numbers by applicants chargeable to India could exhaust the country's annual allocation before September 30, the end of fiscal year 2026.
“High demand and number use by aliens chargeable to India in the EB-1 visa category may necessitate making the category unavailable in the coming weeks if India’s pro-rated limit in the EB-1 category is reached before the fiscal year ends,” the department said.
The State Department added that the situation would be closely monitored and that adjustments would be made if necessary.
The EB-1 category is the employment-based first-preference immigration route and covers priority workers, including individuals with extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and certain multinational executives and managers.
The warning is particularly significant for Indian professionals because several other employment-based green-card categories are already facing substantial backlogs or restrictions.
For September, the EB-1 India final action date is October 15, 2022. Generally, an applicant must have a priority date earlier than the listed cutoff date for an immigrant visa number to be available for final action, subject to meeting all other eligibility requirements.
The situation is even more restrictive in the EB-2 category, which covers professionals with advanced degrees and individuals with exceptional ability. The State Department has marked EB-2 India as “U” or unavailable for September. The category was also unavailable in August.
Under the State Department’s definition, “U” means immigrant visa numbers are not authorised for issuance in that category during the period covered by the bulletin.
Indian applicants in the EB-3 category are also dealing with a lengthy wait. The September final action date for EB-3 India is January 1, 2014, leaving the queue more than 12 years behind current applications.
The contrast with several other countries highlights the extent of the Indian backlog. For September, the EB-3 final action date is September 1, 2024, for most countries not separately listed. The date is January 1, 2022, for mainland China and August 1, 2023, for the Philippines.
The unreserved EB-5 investor category for India is also unavailable for final action in September. However, EB-5 set-aside categories covering rural projects, high-unemployment areas and infrastructure projects remain current for applicants from all countries.
The dates-for-filing chart provides somewhat greater flexibility for Indian applicants. For September, the filing dates are December 1, 2023, for EB-1 India, January 15, 2015, for EB-2 India and January 15, 2015, for EB-3 India.
Applicants seeking adjustment of status from within the US, however, must determine which visa bulletin chart has been authorised by US Citizenship and Immigration Services for that particular month.
The persistent pressure on Indian employment-based immigration is largely linked to high demand combined with statutory limits on employment-based immigrant visas. For fiscal 2026, the State Department has set the worldwide employment-based preference limit at 186,317 visas.
US immigration law also generally applies a 7 per cent per-country limit across family- and employment-based preference categories, although statutory carryover provisions can affect the final allocation calculations.
The latest warning adds to uncertainty for thousands of Indian professionals and families waiting for permanent residency and underscores the significant gap between demand from Indian applicants and the limited number of employment-based immigrant visas available each year.
(Disclaimer :The content of this article is sourced from a news agency and has not been edited by the Mavericknews30 team.)
