India's EB-2 Green Card Line Just Went Unavailable — Not Slower. Gone.

As recently as the June 2026 Visa Bulletin, an India-born applicant in the EB-2 category with a priority date of September 1, 2013 or earlier could file for a green card. In July, that same line in the chart doesn't show a date at all. It shows a single letter: U. Unavailable.

That's not a retrogression. Retrogression means the line moves backward — say, from 2013 to 2011 — and everyone with a date after the new cutoff has to wait longer. "Unavailable" is different. It means the door is shut entirely, for every priority date, regardless of how old. Nobody chargeable to India is getting an EB-2 green card approved in this category for the rest of fiscal year 2026, full stop.

Why It Happened

Every employment-based category operates under two ceilings at once: a worldwide annual limit, and a per-country cap that no single country can exceed (roughly 7% of the worldwide total, with some flexibility built in). The State Department's own July bulletin explains the mechanism plainly: "due to high demand and number use by aliens chargeable to India," the pro-rated limit for India's EB-2 category was reached, and the category became unavailable for the remainder of the fiscal year. India-born applicants filed more EB-2 cases, faster, than the per-country cap could absorb — so the number count hit its ceiling months before the fiscal year runs out on September 30.

This isn't only an India story, and it isn't only an EB-2 story. In the same July bulletin, EB-1 for India retrogressed two months, from December 15, 2022 back to October 15, 2022. India's EB-5 unreserved category is unavailable too. Three separate India employment-based lines went backward or shut down in the same month.

What Most People Get Wrong

The instinct, when a category goes backward, is to look for a workaround — downgrade from EB-2 to EB-3, or vice versa, whichever line is moving. That instinct doesn't help here. India's EB-3 final action date in July 2026 sits at January 1, 2014 — barely three weeks ahead of where EB-2 sat back in June. Almost anyone with an EB-2 priority date recent enough to have been filing this year has a priority date well after 2014, so an EB-3 downgrade doesn't open a door that EB-2 just closed. For India-chargeable applicants with priority dates from the last decade, there is, right now, no employment-based category open at all.

The only real lever is time. The State Department has said that once fiscal year 2027 opens on October 1, 2026, the India EB-2 final action date will likely advance to at least where it stood in the May 2026 bulletin — but the exact number depends on how much demand shows up in the new fiscal year, which nobody can predict in July.

Who This Actually Affects

This lands hardest on people who did everything right and just have the wrong place of birth. An engineer with an approved I-140 and a 2019 priority date has been "current" on paper for years relative to some categories, but chargeable to India means none of that matters once the per-country number runs dry. Anyone with an I-485 pending or about to be filed under EB-2 India needs to know: no final action is possible in this category before October, and that could shift further depending on how the new fiscal year's demand plays out.

A Second Signal Worth Watching

China's EB-2 category didn't go unavailable this month — it held at September 1, 2021, unchanged from June. But the same July bulletin carries an explicit warning: "sufficient demand and increased number use by aliens chargeable to China" may force a retrogression or an unavailable listing in China EB-2 "in the coming months." China EB-2 applicants are not in the same emergency as India right now, but the bulletin is telling them, in writing, to expect one.

What to Do Before October

For India-chargeable EB-2 applicants with a pending or upcoming I-140, the practical steps are less about legal maneuvering and more about positioning: keep the underlying I-140 approved and current, keep any pending I-485 supporting evidence (medical exam, biometrics) from expiring while the case sits in limbo, and confirm your priority date is accurately reflected in your file before the October reset, since a data error discovered in the scramble of a new fiscal year costs real time. For China-chargeable EB-2 applicants, the smart move is to treat the retrogression warning as real and get any pending PERM or I-140 filings moving now, before a possible cutoff makes timing worse.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "Unavailable" mean on the Visa Bulletin? It means zero visa numbers remain for that category and country for the rest of the fiscal year, regardless of priority date. It is more severe than retrogression, which only moves the cutoff date backward.

Will India's EB-2 category open again? Yes, in the new fiscal year starting October 1, 2026. The State Department expects the final action date to advance to roughly where it stood in the May 2026 bulletin, but the exact date depends on demand in the new fiscal year.

Does downgrading from EB-2 to EB-3 help India applicants right now? Generally no. India's EB-3 final action date in July 2026 (January 1, 2014) is only a few weeks ahead of where EB-2 stood in June, so most recent EB-2 priority dates gain nothing from a downgrade.

Is my approved I-140 affected by the category becoming unavailable? No. An approved I-140 remains valid. What's paused is the final step — a visa number becoming available so an I-485 or consular visa can be approved.

Sources & References

Visa Bulletin for July 2026, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs — travel.state.gov. 8 U.S.C. § 1152(a) — per-country numerical limitations on immigrant visas. 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(2) — EB-2 employment-based second preference classification.