India’s EB-2 Green Card Limit Expires in 2026: What Does This Mean?

The U.S. Department of State announced that it has issued all available immigrant visas to India in 2026 under the employment-based second preference (EB-2) category. EB-2 is a green card A category of professionals with advanced degrees or persons with special abilities. The annual limit will reset at the start of the new fiscal year on October 1, 2026. The department informed that embassies and consulates may not issue EB-2 green cards to India until 2026.

What is EB-2? What does quota exhaustion mean?

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) limits the number of employment-based priority immigrant visas that can be issued in a fiscal year. Specifically, INA 203(b)(2) sets the annual limit for EB-2 visas at 28.6% of the global employment limit. In addition, INA 202(a)(2) provides that natives of any single country may not obtain more than 7% of the total number of employment visas and family sponsorship visas prorated among the different visa categories specified in INA 202(e).Based on the 7% upper limit for each country, India obtains about 2,800 EB-2 green cards every year. The total number of employment-based green cards is 140,000, with EB-2 receiving 40,000 – about 28.6%According to the latest visa announcement, the EB-2 final action date is September 1, 2013, which means that people who applied for a green card on that day are now eligible to receive a green card. But as the quota has been exhausted, there will be no further action.However, USCIS may continue to accept adjustment of status applications for cases currently eligible for EB-2 green cards. Interviews may be delayed, and even if an interview occurs, the case will not be approved until a visa number is obtained.In its latest announcement, the department said it had to postpone the final action date due to high demand for the EB-1 and EB-2 visa categories. “If India reaches the pro-rata limits for the EB-1 or EB-2 categories before the end of the current fiscal year, it may be necessary to back off further in the coming months or render these categories ‘unavailable,’” the visa announcement said. Now, the EB-2 category has been marked as unavailable.