EB-2 India: Visas Exhausted
EB-2 India Hit Its Annual Limit on May 22. The Green Card Pipeline Is Frozen Until October.
On May 22, 2026, DOS confirmed that every EB-2 immigrant visa available to Indian-born applicants for FY2026 has been issued. No I-485 approvals, no consular visa issuances — the queue is frozen until October 1. Here is what that means for every type of pending case.
What the May 22 announcement actually says
On May 22, 2026, the U.S. Department of State published an official notice with one simple message: all available EB-2 immigrant visas for applicants chargeable to India have been issued for fiscal year 2026. The fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30. When DOS says 'all available visas have been issued,' it means the annual per-country cap — India's statutory allocation under INA 202(a)(2), which limits any single country to no more than seven percent of total employment-based and family-sponsored visas — has been consumed in full.
The result: EB-2 India is listed as 'U' in any bulletin update through September 30, 2026. 'U' means unavailable. The category does not exist for approval purposes until the FY2027 numbers reset on October 1. No I-485 in the EB-2 category can be approved for an India-born principal applicant. No immigrant visa can be issued at any U.S. consulate. It doesn't matter what priority date is on the I-140. It doesn't matter how long the case has been pending. The fiscal year's numbers are gone.
The per-country limit India hits every year in EB-2 is not just the statutory floor. The actual number includes spillover — unused visa numbers from other countries and categories that roll into India's pool when other lines have fewer applicants than anticipated. This year, India's EB-2 allocation including spillover was fully consumed well before the fiscal year ends.
How the timeline collapsed in three weeks
The June 2026 Visa Bulletin was published on May 13. At that time, the EB-2 India Final Action Date was retrogressed by more than ten months — from July 15, 2014 back to September 1, 2013. The bulletin's own notes warned explicitly that further retrogression, or an 'unavailable' designation, was possible before September 30.
Nine days later, on May 22, the warning became a fact. The retrogression in the June bulletin was a reaction to visa number consumption running too fast — pulling the date backward was an attempt to slow the pace of approvals. It wasn't enough. There's always a lag between when DOS publishes a new cutoff date and when USCIS and consular posts fully absorb that change into their processing queues. The ten-month retrogression was steep, but the in-flight approvals from before the bulletin date had already committed most of the remaining numbers.
For India-born EB-2 applicants watching the May 2026 bulletin cutoff of July 15, 2014 and expecting imminent approval: the sequence went from 'your turn is coming' to 'the category is closed for the year' in less than three weeks. The June bulletin's warning was not hedging language. It was a countdown that ran out faster than anyone expected.
If your I-485 is already filed and pending
This is where the news is less catastrophic than it sounds. A pending Form I-485 does not get canceled or denied because the visa category went unavailable. The application stays on file. Your place in the queue is preserved. USCIS cannot approve the green card itself — that's the freeze — but it can and does continue processing the underlying file.
Background checks run. Security vetting continues. If an interview is already scheduled at a USCIS field office, the office may keep the appointment or reschedule it depending on local practices. If your interview happens while the category is unavailable, it won't produce a green card approval that day. The case gets held pending visa number availability.
Your EAD and Advance Parole are not affected by the visa number freeze. Both tie to the pending I-485, not to visa availability. EAD renewals and AP renewals proceed on their normal timelines. Work authorization does not stop. The freeze is on the final green card approval only.
If you have not filed I-485 yet
The situation is more complicated for applicants who were current under May 2026's Final Action Date — July 15, 2014 — but had not yet filed an I-485 when the May 22 announcement dropped.
Immigration attorneys have generally said USCIS should continue accepting EB-2 India I-485 filings where the priority date was current under the May bulletin, consistent with how the agency handled mid-year visa exhaustion in prior fiscal years. Accepting a filing and having the case approved this fiscal year are different things. If you file now, USCIS receives the application, begins processing, and issues an EAD and Advance Parole. The green card approval itself cannot come through until October 1 at the earliest, when new FY2027 numbers reset.
The practical argument for filing despite the unavailability is work authorization. For someone on H-1B, securing an EAD gives employment flexibility — the ability to change jobs without H-1B transfer requirements, and the ability to remain authorized if the H-1B is in a gap period. Under the current USCIS policy environment, the heightened AOS discretion framework that took effect in May adds another question: does filing now make sense for your specific equities? That calculation is fact-specific. Get a direct answer from your attorney about whether filing is worth the cost and whether your profile supports a favorable discretionary outcome.
Consular processing: interviews, NVC, and what to do abroad
For applicants in the consular pipeline — those whose cases sit at the National Visa Center waiting for interview assignments, or who already have scheduled appointments at U.S. consulates abroad — the visa number exhaustion has a direct effect.
U.S. consulates cannot issue EB-2 immigrant visas to India-chargeable applicants through September 30, 2026. An interview that takes place during this period may still happen. The consular officer can review the file, evaluate the application, and find the applicant eligible. Then the case goes into a hold — waiting for a visa number — until October 1, when new FY2027 numbers become available and the visa can actually be issued.
For applicants in the process of scheduling travel abroad to attend a consular interview: there is no benefit to timing the trip before October 1 for the purpose of getting into this fiscal year's window. That window closed on May 22. The more useful question is whether completing an interview now, and being found approvable while waiting for October numbers, puts you ahead of cases that haven't been reviewed yet when October numbers start flowing. The answer may be yes — talk to your NVC counsel about whether pre-positioning the case is worth the trip.
What October 1 actually looks like
October is when things reset, but reset doesn't mean the backlog disappears. Everyone who was waiting in June is still waiting in October. The new fiscal year brings new numbers — it doesn't remove names from the queue.
In prior years when EB-2 India went unavailable during the fiscal year, the October bulletin typically showed date advancement. New-year numbers flow in, and USCIS can resume approving cases that had been frozen mid-review. How far the October date advances depends on two things: how many FY2027 numbers are allocated to India EB-2 (the base allocation plus spillover from countries with lower demand), and how aggressively DOS sets the cutoff in the first bulletin of the new year.
Watch the late-September bulletin closely. That is the one released in mid-September, showing FY2027 opening dates — the first read on where DOS is planning to set the cutoff when the new year begins. Also worth watching: whether USCIS restores the Dates for Filing chart for employment-based categories in October. Chart B went away in May 2026 and has not returned. If it comes back in October, it opens a filing window for applicants whose priority dates sit between the Dates for Filing cutoff and the Final Action cutoff.
What to actually do between now and September 30
If your I-485 is pending: check your EAD expiration date. If it runs out in the next three to five months, file your I-765 renewal now. Processing times have been running two to four months at many USCIS offices. You do not want your EAD to lapse while you're waiting for October numbers to free up your case. Advance Parole renewal follows the same logic — if you have international travel planned for the fall, file AP renewal before summer is over.
Make sure you understand whether you're relying on H-1B or EAD for your work authorization on any given day. Many applicants in a long-pending I-485 situation have let their H-1B maintenance slide, expecting the green card to come through. With the category frozen until October and further uncertainty about FY2027 movement, maintaining your H-1B extension filing if one is due is not optional.
If your priority date was about to become current and you've been watching the queue: circle October on your calendar and watch the late-September bulletin release for the FY2027 opening dates. That is the clearest signal for whether to prepare an I-485 filing, have your employer take any action, or coordinate timing with NVC on the consular side. This article is informational only and does not constitute legal advice. The EB-2 India visa number exhaustion affects different applicants differently depending on whether your I-485 is pending, what your H-1B status looks like, whether you're in consular processing, and what your priority date is relative to the October bulletin. Consult a licensed immigration attorney for decisions affecting your specific situation.