The reason for the long queue for those born in India is that the US imports more skilled Indian professionals each year than it can offer green cards.
The Cato Institute says that for some H1-B categories, “Indian applicants (those with master’s or bachelor’s degrees) are waiting almost 90 years to file this year.” Citizens of other countries with fewer H1-B admissions are granted permanent residency within the first year.
With the largest share of H1-B visas granted to India-born high-tech professionals each year – an average of 75 percent of the allotted – the 7 percent country cap has created a massive green card processing backlog, the highest ever Is. of 1.2 million people in 2020. The hardest hit are Indian H1-B visa holders and their H-4 dependent families.
Neha Mahajan moved to the US from India 16 years ago on an H-4 visa linked to her husband’s H-1-B visa. His family waited more than a decade for his green card, during which he co-founded SIIA (Skilled Immigrants in America), an organization that advocates for fairer immigration policies for H1-B families Is. They argue that the number of green cards allotted to a country should be proportionate to the number of H1-B visas granted.