A recent report has revealed that over 400,000 Indians are expected to pass away before they receive a green card to the United States. This grim statistic is based on the fact that there are more than 1.1 million pending applications from Indians in the US employment-based green card backlog.
A green card, or Permanent Resident Card, grants US immigrants permanent residency in the country.
According to the report by the US-based think tank Cato Institute, Indians account for 63% of the total 1.8 million employment-based green card applications currently pending in the United States. This backlog compounds the existing 8.3 million pending applications from the family-sponsored system.
For new Indian applicants, the backlog effectively represents "a life sentence," with an estimated wait time of over 134 years. The report states that "about 424,000 employment-based applicants will die waiting, and over 90 percent of them will be Indians. Given that Indians are currently half of all new employer-sponsored applicants, roughly half of all newly sponsored immigrants will die before they receive a green card."
Despite the substantial employment of Indians and Chinese in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) roles in the US, only seven percent of employment-based green cards can be allocated to individuals from any one country annually. This puts Indians at a significant disadvantage, with over half of the backlog comprising employees of US businesses with advanced degrees, including highly-skilled STEM professionals and US-educated graduates.
The prolonged wait time for green cards has evolved into a growing crisis in the US, leaving Indian applicants in a state of uncertainty, despite efforts by the Biden administration and initiatives by Indian-American lawmakers.
"These astonishing backlogs and lengthy waits highlight the near-impossibility of legal immigration to the United States. Even reaching the point of entering the backlog requires an extraordinary stroke of luck, and those fortunate few who navigate the labyrinth face the daunting prospect of potentially never receiving green cards within decades or even their lifetimes," the report concludes.
