A recent report by the American libertarian think tank Cato Institute found that over 400,000 employment-based Green Card applicants face a wait of up to 134 years.
With the annual cap set at 140,000 employment-based visas and a 7% limit per country, there is currently a backlog of 1.8 million Green Card applications. Of these, 1.1 million applicants are from India. 250,000 are from China.
The vast majority of backlogged cases are EB-2 applications for those with advanced degrees. Nearly 20% are for EB-3 applicants with undergraduate degrees. Special immigrant EB-4 applicants make up roughly 13% of cases, and EB-5 investors comprise about 6%.
According to the Cato Institute, it is estimated that approximately 424,000 of these applicants will not have their Green Card applications approved within their lifetimes. In addition, up to 134,000 Indian children could age out of eligibility before they are able to get a Green Card.
A Congressional bill known as H.R. 1535; the Eliminating Backlogs Act of 2023 was introduced this year with the goal of recapturing unused visas to help ease this astonishing backlog. The bill will need both Congressional and Senate approval prior to being presented to the President and possibly signed into law.
