The United States will not be granting any more visas under the Employment-Based Fourth Preference (EB-4) category for the remainder of fiscal year 2025. The U.S. State Department, in coordination with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, has confirmed that all available visas in this category have already been issued.
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the total number of employment-based immigrant visas that can be issued each fiscal year is limited. Specifically, the EB-4 category is allocated 7.1 percent of the overall employment-based visa limit, with a minimum of 140,000 visas available across all categories annually.
The EB-4 category is designated for special immigrants, which includes religious workers, special immigrant juveniles, certain U.S. government employees, international organization retirees, and employees involved in international broadcasting, among others.
As the full allocation of EB-4 visas has been reached, embassies and consulates will be unable to process or issue visas under this category until the beginning of the next fiscal year on October 1, 2025, when the annual limits will reset. At that time, qualified applicants may resume visa processing.
Earlier in the year, the March visa bulletin indicated that due to high demand, retrogression was necessary in the EB-4 category to ensure that issuances remained within the annual limit. The bulletin also warned that the category could become unavailable in the following months, with the possibility of this happening as early as April. However, by February 2025, all visas under this preference category had already been distributed.
When demand for a specific visa category exceeds the available supply, it may become unavailable before the fiscal year ends. This ensures that issuances do not surpass the set annual cap, requiring visa applicants to wait until the following fiscal year for new allocations to become available.
