US Warns EB-1 India Green Card Category May Go Unavailable Before FY 2026 Ends
The U.S. Department of State has issued an unusually blunt warning: the EB-1 India employment-based green card category could become unavailable before the current fiscal year closes on September 30, 2026. The alert appears in the August 2026 Visa Bulletin, released July 20, 2026, in a section covering possible category unavailability.
The reason is high demand. Employment-based immigrant visas operate under annual, category and per-country limits, and the department says India's prorated allocation in the first employment-based preference (EB-1) may run out in the coming weeks. If that happens, the bulletin will mark the category with a "U," meaning no immigrant visa numbers are authorized for issuance until the new fiscal year begins October 1.
What changed
The August bulletin sets the EB-1 India Final Action Date at October 15, 2022, and the Dates for Filing at December 1, 2023. Those two charts do different jobs. The filing chart can determine when an eligible applicant may submit an adjustment-of-status application, but only when USCIS authorizes its use. The final-action chart governs whether a visa number is actually available for final green card approval.
That creates a gap: someone may qualify to file under the filing chart while still waiting for their priority date to become current under the final-action chart before approval can happen.
The category had moved sharply earlier in the year, advancing 11 months in January 2026 and reaching as far as April 2023 in late 2025, before settling at October 15, 2022. USCIS reportedly had roughly 21,904 pending adjustment applications in the category's early-2026 inventory.
What it means for applicants
If you are affected, the key point is that unavailability does not undo work already done. An approved Form I-140 petition stays valid, and a properly filed Form I-485 adjustment application remains pending even if the category retrogresses or goes unavailable. USCIS can keep processing parts of a case, but final approval requires an available visa number.
A few practical notes:
- Petition approval and visa availability are separate. A cutoff change does not turn an approved petition into a rejected one.
- Work permits and travel documents are not automatically extended. Employment authorization and advance parole tied to a pending case each have their own expiration date, so monitor them and renew when needed.
- Timelines vary. Some applicants have noted that newer cases filed during a temporary advance were approved while older cases stayed pending. Priority dates and case processing do not always line up.
Applicants whose priority dates qualify under the currently authorized chart should assess whether they can file a valid application before the month's window closes. New annual visa allocations begin with FY2027 on October 1, though that reset does not guarantee the cutoff date will jump to any particular point.
For internationally mobile professionals from India pursuing a U.S. green card through EB-1, the message is to track the monthly Visa Bulletin closely and confirm details with official government sources before making filing or travel decisions.
Originally reported by VisaVerge.