Green Card Blow For Indians? US Warns EB-1 Category Could Soon Become Unavailable

The United States has warned that employment-based first-preference green cards for Indian nationals could become temporarily unavailable in the coming weeks as heavy demand threatens to exhaust the visa numbers available to the country before the end of the US fiscal year.

The warning, contained in the US State Department’s September Visa Bulletin, comes at a time when Indian applicants already face severe backlogs across several employment-based green-card categories, with the EB-2 category remaining completely unavailable for final action in September.

“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 State Department said.

“This situation will be continually monitored, and any necessary adjustments will be made accordingly,” it added.

The US fiscal year ends on September 30.

What Is The EB-1 Green Card Category?

EB-1 is the first-preference category under the US employment-based immigration system and is meant for priority workers. It covers people with extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and certain multinational executives and managers.

For Indian applicants, the final action date for EB-1 in September is October 15, 2022. This generally means that an applicant must have a priority date earlier than the cutoff for a visa number to be available for final issuance, subject to other eligibility requirements.

If India’s available EB-1 visa numbers are exhausted before September 30, the category could be designated unavailable for the remainder of the fiscal year.

EB-2 Already Unavailable For Indians

The pressure is not limited to EB-1. India’s EB-2 category, covering professionals holding advanced degrees and people with exceptional ability, is marked “U”, or unavailable, in the September Visa Bulletin.

According to the State Department, a “U” designation means that visa numbers are not authorised for issuance in that category during the specified period.

EB-2 India was already unavailable in August and continues to remain so in September.

EB-3 India Queue Stretches Back To 2014

Indian applicants also face a lengthy backlog in the employment-based third-preference, or EB-3, category.

The final action date for EB-3 India in September is January 1, 2014, leaving the queue stretching back more than 12 years.

The contrast with several other countries is stark. The EB-3 final action date is September 1, 2024, for most countries not separately listed in the bulletin. For mainland China, it is January 1, 2022, while for the Philippines it is August 1, 2023.

India’s unreserved EB-5 investor category is also unavailable for final action in September. However, EB-5 set-aside categories for rural projects, high-unemployment areas and infrastructure projects remain current for all countries.

What About Green Card Filing Dates?

The dates-for-filing chart offers Indian applicants a somewhat wider window than the final-action chart.

For September, the EB-1 filing date for India is December 1, 2023. For both EB-2 and EB-3, it is January 15, 2015.

However, applicants seeking adjustment of status from within the United States must check which chart the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has authorised for use in a particular month.

A filing date does not mean that a green card can immediately be issued. Final issuance remains dependent on the applicable final-action date and the availability of a visa number.

Why Are Indian Green Card Applicants Facing Such Long Queues?

The pressure on employment-based green cards for Indians stems largely from a combination of high demand and statutory limits on how many immigrant visas can be issued each year.

For fiscal 2026, the State Department has put the worldwide employment-based preference limit at 186,317.

US immigration law also generally imposes a seven per cent per-country limit across family-sponsored and employment-based preference categories, although carryover provisions affect the final allocation.

With demand from Indian applicants substantially exceeding the numbers available under these limits, queues have accumulated across several employment-based categories.

The latest EB-1 warning indicates that even the first-preference category could run out of numbers for Indian applicants before the current fiscal year closes on September 30.