Indian professionals seeking permanent residency in the United States are facing an almost unimaginable wait: up to 179 years for a green card, according to a new analysis, as tighter immigration processing policies and long-standing annual caps continue to strain the system.
The employment-based green card backlog has climbed to roughly 1.2 million people, the National Foundation for American Policy reported. Under federal immigration law, only 140,000 employment-based green cards can be issued each year, and no single country may receive more than 7% of the total.
That country-by-country limit has created especially severe delays for applicants from populous nations such as India and China, where demand for U.S. permanent residency far exceeds the number of green cards available annually.
The report found that a Chinese national applying in the EB-2 category — typically used by professionals with advanced degrees, including many workers with master’s degrees — could face an estimated wait of about 25 years.
For Indian professionals in the same immigration pipeline, the projected delay is far longer: 179 years, according to the National Foundation for American Policy, a Virginia-based nonprofit that researches immigration, trade and related economic policy.
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.
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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.”