A new study by CATO Institute finds that 1.4 million skilled immigrants are in green card backlog
The green card backlog in America currently is about ten times the number of green cards available for employment based categories in a year.
Around 90,000 children of immigrants – mainly Indians – will “age out” of green card eligibility while waiting for their green cards. As many as 82% of the approved petitioners in employment based backlog were born in India!
These are some of the shocking findings of a new study by CATO Institute, a Washington, DC, think tank. The findings published by David J. Bier throw light on how the per country cap on green cards is wreaking havoc in the lives of many high skilled and mostly Indian professionals.
Read: “By the time my family gets green cards I will be 96!” (March 4, 2022)
“As of September 2021, there were nearly 320,000 petitions pending, about 875,000 approve receive a grd petitions that were wait listed because of the annual green card limits, and about 245,000 who had filed an application for adjustment of status toeen card (i.e. legal permanent residence),” it notes.
It also says that “82 percent of the approved petition employment‐based backlog was born in India. Another 12 percent was born in China, and the rest (5.4 percent) were born in other countries.”
It may be noted that recently a US Congressional Committee passed a legislation to eliminate the existing per country cap for family based immigrant visas from existing seven percent to fifteen percent.
Read: Tired of green card backlog, Indian doctor returns home for good (October 24, 2021)
Every year, a total of 140,000 green cards are available in the employment based category. With Indians among the highest number of people applying for a work based visa and the green card the backlog is manifold.
For several years, activists have been lobbying to remove the country limit and grant the green cards based on qualifications and not place of origin.
1 Comment
US has one of the worst immigration policies for legal, skilled workers while it has one of the most liberal policies for illegal immigrants who form a fabulous vote banks generations to come (especially for the Democrats). I dearly hope that no one from India plans to come to US any longer on H1, LI, or F1 visas.