The United States State Department (DOS) and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have announced the exhaustion of all available immigrant visas in the Employment-Based Second Preference Advanced Degree category (EB-2) for the 2025 fiscal year, which runs from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025.  By law, the number of EB-2 immigrant visas that may be issued every fiscal year is 28.6% of the worldwide employment-based immigrant visa limit. All available EB-2 immigrant visas for FY 2025 have now been used.  This means that United States embassies and consulates cannot issue any more EB-2 immigrant visas until the 2026 fiscal year begins on October 1, 2025. USCIS also cannot approve any more adjustment of status (AOS) applications based on EB-2 petitions until October 1, 2025 regardless of the applicant’s priority date.

Although no more AOS applications based on EB-2 petitions may be approved by USCIS until October 1, the agency should continue accepting AOS applications for the rest of September, provided that the applicant’s priority date is current under the cut-off dates specified in the September Visa Bulletin. Any AOS applicants whose applications are based on EB-2 petitions that have been scheduled to attend AOS interviews at local USCIS offices should attend these interviews; the interviewing officer should conduct the interview and, if he/she finds the application approvable, will inform the applicant that the application has been provisionally approved, but that permanent resident status cannot be granted until October 1 at the earliest.

T&S Takeaway

The exhaustion of all immigrant visas in the EB-2 category is not unexpected and underscores the unsatisfactory nature of the current immigrant visa quotas or limits, which were set in 1990 and have not been increased since. The fact that FY 2025 is close to its end on September 30, and that a new quota of immigrant visas will be available on October 1, means that the fallout from this exhaustion will be only temporary, however. T&S will continue to closely monitor all developments in this regard, including the monthly issuance of Visa Bulletins by the DOS, and will provide further updates periodically.