Are there annual country-specific per-country limits for U.S. immigrant visas and what are they?
Executive summary
The U.S. immigration system imposes per-country ceilings that generally limit immigrant visas from any single country to seven percent of certain annual visa pools, with specific percentages and exceptions varying by category—family-sponsored and employment-based preferences are subject to a 7% country cap (translating to about 25,620 per country under one common calculation), diversity visas carry a separate 7% cap per country, and statutory subcategory shares (for example EB‑2 and EB‑4) allocate fixed percentages of the employment-based total to each subcategory [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. How the statutory per‑country ceiling works in plain terms
Congress writing the Immigration and Nationality Act set numerical ceilings on major immigrant visa pools and then capped how many visas may be charged to any single country of birth—generally seven percent of the relevant pool—to “avoid monopolization” by a few countries [1] [5]. For the combined family‑ and employment‑preference categories the statute effectively sets a 7% per‑country limit; the Department of State and USCIS implement those limits in the annual Visa Bulletin and related guidance [1] [6]. The dependent area ceiling is set lower—commonly cited at 2%—for certain calculations [1].
2. What the raw numbers mean in practice (family, employment, and diversity)
Statutory formulas produce headline numbers: family‑sponsored preference visas are commonly described as limited to about 226,000 per year and employment‑based preference visas about 140,000 per year [6]; the INA also authorizes up to 55,000 diversity visas per year, though offsets and adjustments often reduce the practical DV annual limit to roughly 50,000–52,000 in recent years [6] [2]. Applying the 7% country ceiling to the combined family+employment ceiling has been described in practice as producing a per‑country cap around 25,620 visas (7% of the statutory total) [1]. For the diversity visa program the State Department states explicitly that no single country may receive more than seven percent of available DVs in a given year [2].
3. Subcategory percentages and category‑specific ceilings
Beyond the blanket 7% country rule, the INA apportions the employment‑based total among subcategories by statute—examples include EB‑2 being allocated 28.6% of the worldwide employment limit and EB‑4 being allocated 7.1%—and those subcategory shares create additional numerical constraints that interact with country ceilings [3] [4]. The Visa Bulletin and State Department notices routinely report when those subcategory allocations are exhausted for a fiscal year, which is why embassies may stop issuing a particular EB subclass before October 1 of that year [4] [3].
4. Important and often overlooked exceptions
The 7% per‑country ceiling is not absolute; statutory and administrative rules allow unused numbers to “fall across” between categories and quarters and can let nationals from oversubscribed countries exceed the 7% cap in practice during certain periods—Congressional Research Service and State Department explanations note that unused family numbers, carryovers, or quarterly excesses have allowed countries like India and China to receive more than a strict 7% share in some years [5]. The practical consequence is that backlogs, unused visas, and the mechanics of allocation can substantially change the country‑by‑country outcomes from the simple arithmetic of 7% of the published caps.
5. Why this matters and where reporting can mislead
Official limits aim to promote geographic distribution and prevent domination by a few high‑volume source countries, but raw statutory percentages don’t capture how carryovers, special statutes (e.g., NACARA offsets), unused quotas, and monthly Visa Bulletin movements shape real access—state and USCIS notices repeatedly show adjustments (e.g., DV offsets and reductions) that change the executable numbers year to year [2] [6]. Coverage that cites “a 7% cap” without noting these exceptions or the separate subcategory shares risks overstating how rigid the ceiling is in practice [5].
6. Limits of this reporting
The sources consulted are official Visa Bulletin pages and explanatory material that set the statutory framework and recent practice; they document the 7% country ceilings, DV 7% rule, subcategory percentages, and common numerical totals but do not produce a single definitive per‑country number applicable to every visa class in every fiscal year because carryovers, offsets, and quarterly rules change final availability [2] [6] [5]. Where the sources do not specify a year‑by‑year final per‑country allotment after all adjustments, this analysis notes that limitation rather than asserting a fixed number.