Some employment-based green card applicants could face new delays in receiving permanent residency if visa numbers run out before September 30, after the State Department warned that several categories are at risk of becoming unavailable before the end of the fiscal year. The warning specifically puts EB-1 India on notice that the category could become unavailable before September 30. EB-2 India and EB-5 unreserved India are already unavailable, while the State Department says other employment-based categories could face retrogression or unavailability if demand causes their limits to be reached.
The September Visa Bulletin lists a final action date of October 15, 2022, for EB-1 India. The State Department warned that the category could become unavailable if the remaining visa numbers are exhausted before September 30. EB-2 India and EB-5 unreserved India are already unavailable.
The State Department announced in May that the India per-country limit for EB-2 had been reached, followed by an announcement in June that the India per-country limit for EB-5 unreserved had been reached. For other applicants, EB-2 and EB-5 unreserved remain available under the September bulletin, but the State Department has warned that high demand could lead to further restrictions before September 30. When an employment-based category becomes unavailable, the government cannot issue additional immigrant visas in that category for the remainder of the fiscal year.
That does not automatically cancel an approved immigrant petition or permanently end an applicant's green card case. For adjustment-of-status applicants in the United States, a case may remain pending until an immigrant visa number becomes available. For applicants pursuing immigrant visas through consular processing, however, a visa cannot be issued while the applicable category is unavailable.
Fiscal year 2026 ends on September 30, with fiscal year 2027 beginning October 1. The new fiscal year brings new annual visa limits, but it does not guarantee that cutoff dates will immediately return to earlier levels. Future availability depends on demand, the number of visas available, and how quickly those numbers are used.
Immigration attorney Nandini Nair told Newsweek that applicants whose cases are otherwise ready for approval can still be stopped when visa numbers run out. "For most applicants, the case is not denied or lost—it is put on hold at the finish line until a visa number becomes available again," Nair said. "For applicants who have waited years, sometimes decades, the frustrating reality is that even an otherwise fully approvable green card can be stopped simply because the government ran out of numbers before September 30." A separate green card-related change takes effect September 18, when new Department of Homeland Security rules governing the public-charge ground of inadmissibility take effect.
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