134 years of waiting for the green card of Indian workers

Receiving a US green card brings special benefits for international applicants. But sometimes the waiting time to receive this happiness card and enter the land of dreams is so long that the applicant may never see the color of this card. In this article, we will examine the time required to obtain a US green card for citizens of different countries, including Indian citizens.

Indian workers have to wait 134 years to get US green card

The US government’s annual cap on green card applications has resulted in the postponement of 1.8 million applications, of which 1.1 million are for Indian citizens.

According to a new analysis by the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute, more than 400,000 Indian workers in the United States who hope to receive a green card through work and employment in the United States face a wait of about 134 years to receive this permit.

The US government’s annual cap of 140,000 employment-based visas and a 7 percent cap per country has resulted in a backlog of 1.8 million cases, of which 1.1 million are from Indian citizens.

In March 2023, the number of 80,324 employment-based green card applications includes 171,635 applicants with spouses and minor children. In addition, 1.3 million people were placed on the waiting list, while 289,000 people were changing their visa status. Some immigrants were also waiting for visa processing in consulates and embassies abroad to obtain employment visas, although the US State Department did not disclose the exact number of these cases. According to Kato’s report, there may be overlaps in some cases due to multiple applications for immigration to the United States and obtaining a green card submitted by one applicant, and this has led to an increase in the number of applications.

Most of the backlog is in the EB-2 category for workers with advanced degrees. Another 19% are in the EB-3 category for workers with a bachelor’s degree. The backlog of EB-4 visas, which include “special immigrants” such as Afghan and Iraqi translators, is about 13%, while EB-5 visa investors are about 6%.

The vast majority of backlogs, approximately 1.1 million of the 1.8 million cases, are from India (63%), while nearly 250,000 backlogs are for citizens from China (14%). The Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala account for approximately 10 percent, mostly in the EB-4 special immigrant group. For new applicants from India, most backlogs in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories have a staggering wait of 134 years. Cato estimates that approximately 424,000 employment-based applicants will die while waiting to receive their green cards.

Conclusion

In this article, the period of 134 years to obtain the American green card for Indian citizens was examined. The large number of US residence visa and green card cases and the time limit have caused some Indian citizens to spend their lives waiting in line for a green card and die without ever seeing a green card. We, the experts of Istehabanati Immigration Institute, will help you to have a suitable visa program at every stage of the US visa process, from filling out the forms to the immigration interview.