US exhausts EB-2 visa limit for India for FY2026

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently announced that the per-country limit in EB-2 category for India has been exhausted for the fiscal year (FY) 2026. In its announcement, the DHS directed all embassies and consulates to no longer issue EB-2 visas to Indian applicants for the rest of the current fiscal year. As directed by the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), the annual limits will reset with the start of the new fiscal year (FY 2027) on October 1, 2026. “At that point, embassies and consulates may resume issuing immigrant visas in this category to qualified applicants,” the order stated.

What is EB-2 category visa

EB-2 visa is an employment-based immigrant visa category that allows foreign nationals to obtain a Green Card (permanent residency) based on their education, skills, or professional achievements. As explained by USCIS, Second preference petitions are usually accompanied by a signed US Department of Labor (DOL)-approved Form ETA-9089, Application for Permanent Employment Certification, or, for labor certification applications filed on or after June 1, 2023, using DOL’s Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG) system, an approved and signed Form ETA-9089, Final Determination – Permanent Employment Certification Approval (Final Determination).

What DHS said in its announcement

The State Department, working in close collaboration with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, has issued all available immigrant visas in the Employment-Based Second Preference (EB-2) category for applicants chargeable to India for fiscal year (FY) 2026. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) limits the number of employment-based preference immigrant visas that may be issued within a fiscal year. Specifically, INA 203(b)(2) provides that the annual limit for EB-2 visas is 28.6 percent of the worldwide employment limit. Additionally, INA 202(a)(2) establishes that natives of any single foreign state may not receive more than seven percent of the total of employment-based and family-sponsored visas, which is prorated among the different visa categories under INA 202(e).Since all available EB-2 visas for applicants chargeable to India in FY 2026 have been used, embassies and consulates may not issue visas in these cases for the remainder of the fiscal year. The annual limits will reset with the start of the new fiscal year (FY 2027) on October 1, 2026. At that point, embassies and consulates may resume issuing immigrant visas in this category to qualified applicants.