United States | EB-5 unreserved visa category reaches annual cap limit for FY 2025

The State Department announced that all available immigrant visas in the Employment-Based Fifth Preference (EB-5) unreserved category have been issued for fiscal year (FY) 2025.

Key Points:

• The EB-5 unreserved category includes visa classifications C5, T5, I5, R5, RU and NU.
• The Immigration and Nationality Act limits EB-5 visas to 7.1% of the worldwide employment-based visa cap, with 68% allocated to unreserved categories.
• The FY 2025 limit includes unused reserved EB-5 visas from FY 2023, as permitted under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022.
• Embassies and consulates may not issue EB-5 unreserved visas for the remainder of FY 2025.
• Visa issuance in this category will resume on Oct. 1, 2025, with the start of FY 2026.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

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