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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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The Trump administration has exhausted the annual supply of investor green cards available to Indian nationals under a key employment-based immigration category, temporarily halting new visa issuances for the remainder of the fiscal year.
The U.S. State Department said in a notice published on June 10 that all available immigrant visas in the Employment-Based Fifth Preference, or EB-5, unreserved category for applicants chargeable to India had been issued as of June 5.
The announcement means U.S. embassies and consulates cannot issue additional visas in that category to Indian applicants until the start of fiscal year 2027 on October 1, when annual visa allocations reset.
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Why It Matters
The EB-5 program offers a pathway to permanent residency for foreign nationals who make qualifying investments in U.S. businesses that meet job-creation requirements. The category is subject to annual numerical limits established by Congress, as well as per-country caps that restrict the number of immigrant visas available to nationals of any single country.
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What To Know
Under current U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) rules, EB-5 investors generally must invest at least $800,000 in a targeted employment area or an infrastructure project, or $1.05 million in other projects, and must create or preserve at least 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualifying U.S. workers.
According to the State Department, 68 percent of EB-5 visas are allocated to unreserved categories. The department also noted that unused reserved EB-5 visas from fiscal year 2024 could be made available to unreserved categories in fiscal year 2026 under provisions of the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022.
The affected category is the traditional EB-5 visa pool, known as the unreserved category. Separate visa allocations created under the 2022 law for rural, high-unemployment and infrastructure projects are reserved for those types of investments and are not affected by the latest announcement.
The move affects Indian applicants seeking immigrant visas through the EB-5 unreserved category, including those waiting for visa issuance abroad and some applicants in the United States whose cases require an available immigrant visa number before they can be completed.
The announcement does not affect other employment-based immigrant visa categories, family-sponsored green cards or the EB-5 reserved categories created under the 2022 law, which operate under separate allocations.
Applicants whose cases are otherwise ready to be finalized may now have to wait until the start of the next fiscal year before immigrant visas can be issued or permanent resident status approved. The development comes weeks after the State Department announced that India had also reached its fiscal-year limit in the EB-2 employment-based category, reflecting continued demand for U.S. immigrant visas among Indian applicants.
The State Department said visa issuance in the affected category may resume after October 1, when a new fiscal year begins and fresh visa numbers become available.
In the June 2026 Visa Bulletin, the State Department warned that “sufficient demand and increased number use” for India in EB-5 unreserved could force retrogression or make the category unavailable in the next month
The announcement comes as the Trump administration pursues a series of changes to legal immigration programs, including new restrictions on some green-card applicants seeking to obtain permanent residency from within the United States. A judge issued an order intended to force the government to resume processing green card and work permit applications. USCIS said in a statement that while it "strongly disagrees with the court’s order" it would comply with it.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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