Per-country cap (annual cap): what it is
Updated: Author: Alina Kanametova
Per-country cap: definition
Key answer
The 7% limit means a country of 1.4 billion people gets the same quota as a small state. With hundreds of thousands in line and about 2,800 visas per country per category, the queue for some countries (for example India and China) stretches for years, while for most others EB-1 often stays current.
Country of birth counts, not citizenship. Once the yearly quota is exhausted, bulletin dates roll back (retrogression) until October. Before choosing a category, check the current bulletin for your country of birth: regular EB-2 for some countries runs into a multi-year backlog.
Per-country cap: the official definition
“The maximum number of family-sponsored and employment-based preference visas that we can issue to nationals of any country in a fiscal year. We calculate the limits each fiscal year depending on the total number of family-sponsored and employment-based visas available. We cannot issue more than 7% of visas to nationals of any 1 independent country in a fiscal year, and we cannot issue more than 2% of visas to any 1 dependency of any independent country.”
USCIS Glossary (uscis.gov), read 2026-10-11. Quoted verbatim.
Per-country cap: the official source
Per-country cap: what to do - tools
Per-country cap: read next
Per-country cap: documents and templates from the library
Per-country cap: from community discussions
«If you're the founder yourself and there's basically nobody else in the company, you need to at least set up a board of directors that has the authority to hire or fire you, that is, so your employer is distinct from you.»
Eugene · from public community chats
«That's what I did. My cofounder is my nephew and of course he couldn't care less what I do. You can be/live anywhere and register a company here. And yes, that's the whole catch, your cofounder has to have the ability to fire you, otherwise your position is sort of not genuinely an employee one.»
community member · from public community chats
«You need a petitioner. That's not you) Either it's a cofounder with more than a 50% stake in the company, or any other person from your field with US citizenship, if you have letters from employers.»
Ekaterina · from public community chats
Personal opinions of community members from public discussions, not legal advice.
Per-country cap: related terms
A reference definition, not legal advice. Requirements and procedures depend on your case - verify on uscis.gov.
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