EB-3 & EW Green Card Alert 2026: Indians Face Longest Wait as Categories Exhausted

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has once again hit the annual cap for EB-3 (skilled and unskilled workers) and EW (other workers) visa categories for fiscal year 2025, effectively blocking further green card approvals until the next fiscal year begins. This development disproportionately impacts Indian nationals, who already face multi-decade backlogs due to the per-country limit system that caps each country at roughly 7% of total employment-based visas annually. India consistently produces far more qualified EB-3 and EW petitioners than the per-country cap allows, resulting in priority dates that have barely advanced over the past several years. With the categories now marked as 'C' (current) but immediately retrogressed or cut off, applicants from India who were anticipating final action dates to become current face yet another delay in their green card journey. For EB-3 applicants from other countries, the exhaustion of annual numbers is a more temporary setback — their priority dates typically advance quickly once the new fiscal year begins on October 1. However, Indian-born applicants can expect little relief, as the backlog stretches well into the 2010s for some sub-categories. Immigration attorneys advise affected applicants to monitor the monthly Visa Bulletin closely and to consult with their employers or legal counsel about potential alternative pathways, such as EB-1A or EB-2 NIW petitions where applicable. Those already holding approved I-140 petitions retain their priority dates even if the category becomes unavailable temporarily. This annual exhaustion of EB-3 and EW numbers underscores the urgent need for comprehensive immigration reform to address the structural backlog affecting hundreds of thousands of employment-based applicants, particularly those born in high-demand countries like India and China.