India’s 2026 EB-2 green card quota has been exhausted.
The US State Department announced that it has issued all available immigrant visas in the Employment-Based Second Preference (EB-2) category for India in 2026. EB-2 is the green card category for professionals with an advanced degree or people with exceptional abilities.
The annual limit will reset on October 1, 2026 at the beginning of the new fiscal year.
Embassies and consulates may not issue EB-2 green cards to India until 2026, the ministry informed.
What is EB-2? What does quota exhaustion mean?
The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) limits the number of preferential employment-based immigrant visas that can be issued during a fiscal year. Specifically, INA 203(b)(2) states that the annual limit for EB-2 visas is 28.6% of the worldwide employment cap.
Additionally, INA 202(a)(2) provides that nationals of any single foreign country may not obtain more than seven percent of the total employment-based and family-sponsored visas, which are prorated among the different visa categories under INA 202(e).India gets about 2,800 EB-2 green cards annually, an average of 7% per country. The total number of employment-based green cards is 140,000 and the EB-2 program gets 40,000 – about 28.6%.
According to the latest Visa Bulletin, the EB-2 final action date is September 1, 2013 which means those who applied for a green card on that day are now eligible for a green card. But since the quota has already been exhausted, there will be no further movement.However, USCIS may continue to accept adjustment of case files for cases now eligible for an EB-2 green card. Interviews may be postponed, and even if the interview takes place, cases will not be approved until a visa number is available.The department said in its latest bulletin that it had to move back the final action dates due to high demand for the EB-1 and EB-2 visa categories. “Further rollbacks, or making the categories ‘unavailable’, may be necessary in the coming months if India’s pro rata limits in the EB-1 or EB-2 categories are reached before the end of the fiscal year,” the visa bulletin said. Now, the EB-2 category is marked as unavailable.
