India EB-2 FY2026 Limit Exhausted: Visa Bulletin 2026 Backlog & FY2027 Outlook

The U.S. Department of State has announced that India's EB-2 employment-based preference category has exhausted all available FY2026 visa numbers. Applicants with pending I-485 Adjustment of Status filings will not be denied — their cases simply pause until the annual cap resets on October 1, 2026, when a fresh allocation of FY2027 numbers becomes available. A detailed community analysis tracked the approximately 9,300 India EB-2 visas issued in FY2026, mapping them by source. The breakdown sheds light on why the India EB-2 final action date remains anchored in 2013 despite yearly visa usage — structural factors including cross-chargeability filings and the mechanics of per-country limits continue to constrain forward movement for Indian-born applicants. Cross-filing (where a beneficiary files under both EB-2 and EB-3 to preserve an earlier priority date) is identified as a significant factor that artificially inflates the apparent size of the backlog without increasing the number of people ultimately receiving green cards. This dynamic has important implications for how the State Department and USCIS project future demand. For Indian-born EB-3 applicants, this development is a reminder that EB-2 and EB-3 queues are tightly linked. Visa number exhaustion in EB-2 can shift demand patterns and affect how the Visa Bulletin sets dates across both categories. Applicants are advised to monitor the June 2026 and subsequent Visa Bulletins closely for any movement in final action or filing dates. The analysis also offers a FY2027 outlook, noting that the October reset does not guarantee significant date advancement. The pace of forward movement will depend on overall EB annual limits, unused family-preference spillover, and demand patterns across all preference categories.