U.S. Warns EB-1 Green Card Numbers for India May Run Out

The U.S. State Department has warned that EB-1 green card numbers for applicants from India could be exhausted before the current fiscal year ends on September 30, 2026. This conditional warning hinges on continued high demand for the category.

According to the department's September 2026 Visa Bulletin, the Final Action Date for EB-1 India is October 15, 2022. Applicants generally need a priority date earlier than that to receive final approval this month, but only if visa numbers remain available. The department stated it will monitor demand and may adjust dates if needed.

If the remaining allocation is used up, final approvals requiring an immigrant visa number will stop for the rest of Fiscal Year 2026. This would pause the process until FY2027 begins on October 1, 2026.

India's Employment Visa Queues Face Pressure

Indian professionals are seeing pressure across employment-based categories. The EB-2 category for India has already exhausted its FY2026 allocation, closing that route for the year. The EB-3 category for India has a much longer queue, with a priority date stuck at January 1, 2014.

This makes the EB-1 category, reserved for 'priority workers' like highly accomplished professionals and multinational executives, especially critical. The potential exhaustion of numbers adds new uncertainty for those relying on this path.

Statutory Limits Create the Bottleneck

The squeeze is driven by fixed annual and per-country limits set by immigration law. The worldwide employment-based visa limit for FY2026 is 186,317. The basic per-country limit is 28,862, which adjusts to 29,136 after including specified EB-5 carryover numbers.

Demand from India consistently exceeds this supply, creating multi-year queues. Congress controls these statutory numbers; the executive branch administers them but cannot raise the limits. The State Department can move dates backward, a process called retrogression, if demand threatens the annual ceiling.

What 'Unavailable' Means for Applicants

If the category becomes 'unavailable,' it refers only to visa-number availability for a period. It does not cancel approved Form I-140 petitions, erase priority dates, or automatically end underlying statuses like H-1B.

However, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) cannot approve an adjustment-of-status case requiring a visa number while none is available. U.S. Embassies and consulates similarly cannot issue immigrant visas during that gap. A pending Form I-485 application does not disappear but remains in a waiting state until a number is available.

The Fiscal Year Reset and Next Steps

New annual visa numbers become available when FY2027 starts on October 1, 2026. The same principle that will reset EB-2 India numbers could restore EB-1 availability. October 1 does not guarantee automatic green cards for all waiting applicants. The FY2027 Visa Bulletin will control the next stage, with priority dates and demand still determining eligibility.

Applicants are advised to confirm their priority date and category, monitor eligible EB-1 cases closely, and respond promptly to any USCIS requests. They should also continue consular-processing steps and check both the State Department's Visa Bulletin and USCIS's monthly filing chart for guidance.

The next bulletin will reveal if the category's dates carry into the new fiscal year. The operative deadline for FY2026 numbers remains September 30, 2026.