The State Department, working with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, has issued all available immigrant visas in the Employment-Based Fifth Preference (EB-5) unreserved category for fiscal year (FY) 2025, the agency announced. The annual limit was reached under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which caps the number of employment-based preference immigrant visas that may be issued each fiscal year.
Under INA 203(b)(5), the annual limit for EB-5 visas is set at 7.1 percent of the worldwide employment limit. Of that total, 68 percent is allocated to unreserved visa categories — C5, T5, I5, R5, RU, and NU. The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 also allowed unused EB-5 reserved visas from FY 2023 to be added to the unreserved pool for FY 2025. The State Department confirmed that the calculation of the annual limit that has been reached includes these carryover numbers.
Because all available EB-5 unreserved visas for FY 2025 have been used, U.S. embassies and consulates may not issue visas in these categories for the remainder of the fiscal year. The annual limits will reset with the start of FY 2026 on October 1, 2025. At that point, embassies and consulates may resume issuing immigrant visas in this category to qualified applicants.
No official response from immigration advocacy groups or legal experts is included in the source material. The agency's position beyond the statutory explanation is not given in the report.
Informational content only, not legal advice. Consult a licensed immigration attorney.