FY2024 Annual Visa Limit Reached for EB-1 Category

On August 27, 2024, the Department of State (DOS) announced that all available visa numbers for the Employment-Based 1st Preference Category (EB-1 A, B, and C) have been issued for Fiscal Year 2024 (FY2024). As the annual visa limit for the EB-1 category has been reached, the US Embassies and Consulates abroad are no longer able to issue immigrant visas for the rest of FY2024, which ends on September 30, 2024. Similarly, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) cannot issue green cards or approve adjustment of status (AOS) applications for unavailable EB categories for the remainder of this fiscal year. However, the agency should continue to accept application filings for those with current priority dates under the Visa Bulletin for August and September.

As previously announced, the annual limit of visa numbers for the EB-3 category and EW category was reached on August 16, 2024. The DOS has warned that the EB-2 and EB-4 categories may become unavailable in the near future due to the high demand for visa numbers in the employment-based preference categories.  

The annual visa numbers will reset for the new government fiscal year (FY2025) starting on October 1, 2024. Upon the release and availability of new visa numbers, the US Embassies and Consulates, and the USCIS may resume issuing immigrant visas/green cards in the EB-1 and EB-3 categories.