The July 2026 Visa Bulletin from the U.S. Department of State delivers hard news for Indian employment-based green card applicants: the EB-2 category for India is now unavailable for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2026, meaning no visa numbers will be issued and no adjustment-of-status applications can be approved on an EB-2 India basis until the new fiscal year begins in October.
According to the bulletin, India’s pro-rated EB-2 limit was reached due to heavy demand, forcing the category to shut down. The impact falls squarely on EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) petitioners born in India — even an approved I-140 cannot yield a green card while the category sits at “Unavailable.” The same fate hit EB-5 India’s unreserved category, which also became unavailable, while EB-5 unreserved remains Current for every other country.
EB-1 India did not escape either. The first-preference category for India retrogressed two months, moving backward from December 15, 2022 to October 15, 2022. This marks the third consecutive month that Final Action Dates apply to employment cases across the board.
The picture is brighter elsewhere. China EB-3 advanced roughly 4.5 months (to December 22, 2021), China’s unreserved EB-5 moved forward about 2.5 months, China EB-1 advanced two months, and most other countries — including Mexico — saw EB-3 gains of about two months. Family-based categories also inched forward, with F1 advancing about five months.
What should Indian NIW and EB-2 applicants do now? Filing and building your petition remains valuable: an approved I-140 locks in your priority date, and analysts expect the EB-2 India Final Action Date to rebound in October — likely to at least the level seen in the May 2026 bulletin — once FY2027 numbers become available. Retrogression is a numbers problem, not a merits problem, so a strong petition filed today positions you to convert the moment a visa number opens.
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