Indian applicants waiting for employment-based green cards could face another setback, with the US State Department warning that EB-1 visa numbers for India may become temporarily unavailable before September 30 due to heavy demand.
September 30 marks the end of the US fiscal year, and the State Department said visa usage by applicants chargeable to India could exhaust the country’s pro-rated EB-1 allocation before then.
If that happens, the EB-1 India category could be marked unavailable for the rest of the fiscal year until fresh visa numbers become available in the new fiscal year.
The EB-1 category is meant for individuals with extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and certain multinational executives and managers.
For September 2026, the EB-1 India Final Action Date is October 15, 2022. This generally means applicants need a priority date earlier than that cutoff for a green card number to be available for final approval, subject to other eligibility requirements. The Dates for Filing cutoff for EB-1 India is December 1, 2023.
The State Department said it would continue monitoring demand and make adjustments if necessary.
The warning comes at a difficult time for Indian employment-based green card applicants, who already face severe backlogs in other categories.
EB-2 India is currently marked “U,” meaning unavailable, in the September Visa Bulletin. It was also unavailable in August. EB-2 generally covers professionals with advanced degrees and individuals with exceptional ability.
EB-3 India also continues to face a long wait. Its September Final Action Date stands at January 1, 2014, while the Dates for Filing cutoff for both EB-2 and EB-3 India is January 15, 2015.
The problem is largely driven by high demand and statutory limits on employment-based immigrant visas.
For fiscal year 2026, the worldwide employment-based preference limit is 186,317. US immigration law also generally imposes a 7% per-country limit across family- and employment-based preference categories, subject to available spillover numbers and other statutory rules.
Because India has a very large pool of employment-based green card applicants, these limits have resulted in lengthy queues across several categories.
For Indian EB-1 applicants whose priority dates are current, the latest warning adds urgency as September 30 approaches. If the annual allocation is exhausted, final approvals could pause temporarily until visa numbers become available again in the next fiscal year.
The development once again highlights the growing pressure on Indian professionals stuck in the US employment-based green card system.
