US suspends popular visa category: What it means for applicants

The US Department of State, in close collaboration with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), has announced that all available immigrant visas in the Employment-Based Second Preference (EB-2) category for fiscal year 2025 have been issued. As a result, US embassies and consulates worldwide are suspending the issuance of new EB-2 visas for the remainder of the fiscal year.

The EB-2 visa is designated for professionals with advanced degrees or individuals with exceptional ability in their field. The annual limit for this category is set by the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which provides that EB-2 visas are capped at 28.6 percent of the worldwide employment-based visa limit.

With the annual allocation exhausted, applicants for the EB-2 visa category will now face a pause in visa processing. The Department of State confirmed that embassies and consulates will not be able to issue visas in this category until the start of the new fiscal year.

"This is a standard procedure when the annual statutory limit is reached," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. "The annual limits for all employment-based visa categories will reset with the beginning of the new fiscal year, which starts on October 1, 2025."

At that time, embassies and consulates will resume issuing immigrant visas in the EB-2 category to qualified applicants whose petitions have been approved.

The EB-2 immigrant visa is for individuals who possess advanced degrees (or a foreign equivalent) or have exceptional ability in the sciences, arts, or business. This category typically requires a job offer from a U.S. employer and a certified labour certification. In some cases, a National Interest Waiver may be granted to waive the job offer and labor certification requirements if the applicant's work is in the US national interest.