All the EB-5 Unreserved visas for fiscal year 2025 have been issued. The State Department (DOS) announcement comes two weeks before the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30.
This means that no further Unreserved immigrant visas can be issued by U.S. embassies/consulates until the new fiscal year resets on Oct. 1, 2025 (FY2026).
This development showcases effective processing, said EB-5 lawyer Jimena Cabrera from Cabrera Law.
“The fact that all available visas have been issued indicates that USCIS and the State Department are maintaining their capacity to adjudicate these applications, which is a positive sign,” she said.
Having all the Unreserved issued for this fiscal year means that “they won’t be lost to EB-5,” said Suzanne Lazicki from Lucid Professional Writing in her blog.
Implications of all Unreserved visas being issued in 2025
When the designated number of this visas is reached, it does not mean that the EB-5 program has closed for the year. The demand for visas in this category has reached the annual cap. The Unreserved category involves investors who invested in EB-5 projects not located in a Target Employment Area (TEA) and those who filed before the Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA), regardless of the investment amount, project type, or location.
“Reaching the annual limit in the EB-5 Unreserved category before the end of the fiscal year has been a recurring trend since the passage of the [RIA],” says Cabrera.
The issued visas also included those that were unused in fiscal years 2023 and 2024, which rolled over to this one.
Meanwhile, the amount allocated for the “reserved” (set‑aside) EB-5 category remains available. Set-asides apply to EB-5 projects located in TEAs that are rural, high-unemployment areas, and to infrastructure developments in urban or rural TEAs. Visa applications under this category receive priority processing.
What happens next in the EB-5 industry?
For fiscal year 2026, the limit for annual employment-based preference immigrants is set at a minimum of 140,000. The EB-5 program is expected to receive approximately 10,000 of these visas.
“It is likely that the reserved categories will not reach their annual limits this fiscal year and will instead carry over into FY 2027; however, this trend is not expected to continue for long,” Cabrera said.
On Oct. 1, all the EB-5 annual limits will refresh. Therefore, around 3,000 of those visas should go to the set-aside categories and the remaining to the Unreserved category. Then, U.S. consulates will resume issuing EB-5 unreserved visas to qualified applicants, and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) may resume approvals as visa numbers become available.
“It is no surprise that demand remains high for all EB-5 visa categories,” said EB-5 attorney Charles Kuck from Kuck Baxter. “EB-5 is, basically, the only real way to immigrate quickly to the U.S. outside of marriage to a U.S. citizen. Expect bigger numbers next year.”
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