USCIS approved 50% more green cards in FY 2021

Despite USCIS claims, Indian work visa holders express frustration over long waiting lines, processing delays

Amid many Indian immigrants and work visa holders’ concerns over processing delays, USCIS says it approved over 172,000 employment-based green card applications in FY 2021, about 50% more than the usual.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) “faced the unprecedented challenge of processing over 237,000 employment-based green card applications,” the agency said announcing its list of FY 2021 accomplishments on Dec 16.

These included “—not only the agency’s usual 115,000, but an additional 122,000 immigrant visa numbers that the Department of State was unable to process in FY 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” it said.

“By the end of FY 2021, USCIS approved over 172,000 employment-based adjustment of status applications, an increase of 50% above the typical baseline.”

READ: A record 150,000 excess green cards to be available in 2022 (December 6, 2021)

On the issue of processing delays, the USCIS report said, “Across the agency, the volume of pending cases increased as well as the associated processing times.” But the agency has made significant strides in addressing processing delays caused by Covid-19 and other factors while responding to new executive orders” in several ways.

These included reusing biometrics for 2.5 million applicants since March 2020; reducing the number of pending biometrics appointments from 1.4 million in January 2021 to 155,000 as of the end of September.”

USCIS said it also “fully eliminated the ‘front-log’ of cases awaiting intake processing (which was more than one million receipts in January 2021 and was eliminated in July) by expanding staffing and overtime at our Lockbox facilities.”

“I’m immensely proud of the USCIS workforce and for their achievements in a year of many challenges and rebuilding,” USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou stated.

READ: Everything you need to know about unused Green Cards (October 5, 2021)

“From responding to the Covid-19 pandemic and addressing processing delays to enacting numerous operational and policy changes in response to executive orders from the Biden-Harris Administration, FY 2021 marks a year of growth and renewed vision for our agency.”

However despite USCIS claims, many work visa holders voiced their opinion on social media and maintained that work permit processing delays claimed the jobs of thousands of work visa holders, leaving many families in dire financial straits in the middle of a raging pandemic.

Others continued to express frustration over the processing delays of work permits such as H-4 EAD and L-2EAD as well as the unbearably long wait for green cards, thousands of Indian visa holders find themselves stuck in.

READ: U.S Announces Record Number Of Green Cards Available In 2022 (November 14, 2021)

Further the wastage of about 80,000 green cards which emerged due to excess family based green cards during the Covid era further irked many of those who are in the long line for green cards.