Indian professionals in the US now have to wait 179 years for Green Cards — after the Trump administration put tough limits on how it issues permanently residency.
The current green card backlog has hit 1.2 million people as federal immigration law restricted the number that can be doled out each year to 140,000 — with no more than 7% going to any one country, according to a new report by the National Foundation for American Policy.
This means immigrants from large countries — like India and China — are subject to wait times of decades or more before being granted permanent residency.
According to the data, a Chinese national applying for a green card with EB-2 status — that is, most professional workers with master’s degrees — could be waiting approximately 25 years.
For professionals from India, the estimated wait 179 years, according to the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) — a Virginia-based nonprofit that studies immigration and international trade.
Workers from the Philippines, meanwhile, have a wait of just a few months.
The longest wait times for coveted EB-1 green cards — reserved for those with “extraordinary ability” — sit around four to five years for Indian nationals and five years for applicants from China.
The NFAP argues that the long wait times makes it harder for US-based employers to hire and retain foreign-born workers, and burdens immigrant families.
“Many Americans don’t realize how challenging it can be to immigrate legally to the United States, even for the most highly skilled and innovative people in the country,” Stuart Anderson, executive director of the NFAP, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
“These are people who want to become Americans and are willing to wait years for the chance.”
For those holding temporary H-1B work visas, which are most often given to those in the tech sector, pending green card applications keep them mired in so-called “H-1B limbo,” requiring them to stay in specialty professions where their employer sponsors their application.
If an H-1B worker is laid off, they have just 60 days to find another job or leave the country, according to the outlet. The Trump administration says it intends to impose a $103,000 administrative fee for H-1B visa applications, complicating matters further as the federal government has curtailed the number of H-1B holders in the country.
Kevin Lynn, executive director of the D.C.-based Institute for Sound Policy, who opposes the H-1B visa system, claims the current setup allows US companies to hire foreign workers and pay them less than their US counterparts, arguing it negatively impacts American jobseekers.
“We don’t need these tech workers,” he told the Chronicle.
“These employment visa programs that have led to this logjam have negatively impacted American innovation and inventiveness. … If you don’t want to be in that backlog, don’t come to the United States, don’t participate. That’s a choice someone makes.”
