Washington, September 3, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The United States has warned that employment-based first-preference (EB-1) green cards for Indian applicants could become unavailable within weeks because of high demand, adding further pressure to an already severe immigration backlog.
In its September Visa Bulletin, the US State Department said the heavy use of EB-1 immigrant visa numbers by applicants chargeable to India could exhaust the country’s allocation before the US fiscal year ends on September 30.
“High demand and number use by aliens chargeable to India in the EB-1 visa category may necessitate making the category unavailable in the coming weeks if India’s pro-rated limit in the EB-1 category is reached before the fiscal year ends,” the department said.
EB-1 is the employment-based first-preference category for priority workers, including individuals with extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and certain multinational executives and managers.
For September, the EB-1 India final action date is October 15, 2022. Generally, Indian applicants must have a priority date earlier than the listed cutoff for a visa number to be available for final action, subject to other eligibility requirements.
The warning comes as other employment-based categories remain heavily backlogged for Indian applicants. The EB-2 India category, covering professionals with advanced degrees and individuals of exceptional ability, is listed as “U” or unavailable in September. It was also unavailable in August.
The EB-3 India final action date is January 1, 2014, putting the queue more than 12 years behind. By comparison, the EB-3 date is September 1, 2024 for most countries not separately listed, January 1, 2022 for mainland China and August 1, 2023 for the Philippines.
India’s unreserved EB-5 investor category is also unavailable for final action in September, although EB-5 set-aside categories for rural projects, high-unemployment areas and infrastructure remain current for all countries.
The September dates-for-filing chart provides somewhat earlier cutoffs for Indian applicants: December 1, 2023 for EB-1, January 15, 2015 for EB-2 and January 15, 2015 for EB-3. Applicants seeking adjustment of status in the US must also check which chart the US Citizenship and Immigration Services has authorised for that month.
The State Department said the pressure reflects strong demand combined with statutory limits on employment-based immigrant visas. For fiscal year 2026, the worldwide employment-based preference limit is 186,317.
US immigration law generally also applies a 7 per cent per-country limit to family- and employment-based preference visas, although statutory carryover provisions can affect the final calculations.
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