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2w ago

State Department Warns Employment-Based Visa Categories Could Exhaust Before Fiscal-Year End

Statutory caps on per-country visas combined with an 11.3 million-case USCIS backlog are expected to exhaust EB allocations by September 30.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization ceremony held at the New York Public Library, in New York City, NY, USA.
The US Visa Office has warned that the majority of employment-based (EB) annual restrictions could be outpaced in August and September 2025.
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Overview

  • The September 2025 Visa Bulletin cautions that EB-2, EB-3 and EB-5 categories may hit FY-2025 numerical ceilings in August or September and be declared unavailable until October 1.
  • Final action dates for Indian employment-based applicants remain unchanged at multi-year cutoffs (EB-1: February 15 2022; EB-2: January 1 2013; EB-3: May 22 2013; EB-5 unreserved: November 15 2019) while EB-4 is unavailable.
  • The F2A family-sponsored category has advanced to June 1 2025 and stays open for filing visas for spouses and minor children of permanent residents across all countries.
  • Diversity Visa 2025 entrants must complete interviews and visa issuance by September 30 or lose eligibility as the program’s fiscal-year entitlement expires.
  • Section 202(e) prorating for oversubscribed chargeability areas—China, India, Mexico and the Philippines—could trigger further freezes or retrogressions if demand outpaces supply.