Indian EB-2 queue stuck in 2013 as US Congressman flags 179-year green card wait

Washington: US Congressman Josh Gottheimer has renewed his call to end per-country caps on employment-based green cards, as the latest US visa bulletin shows Indian professionals with advanced degrees are only now reaching applications filed nearly 13 years ago.

"Imagine waiting 179 years for a green card. That's the projected wait for Indian green card applicants," the New Jersey Democrat said on X.

"I voted to end the per-country caps to expedite the process, because we can enforce our laws and still live up to our immigrant values as Americans," he said.

The 179-year figure comes from an August analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), an Arlington, Virginia-based research group.

NFAP projected that an Indian national filing in January 2026 or later faces a potential wait of 179 years in the EB-2 category for advanced-degree holders and 38 years in EB-3. The estimate excludes government processing time.

NFAP estimated that Indians make up 79 per cent, or about 996,599, of the 1,264,495 people waiting in the first three employment-based preferences as of December 2025.

It used US Citizenship and Immigration Services data on approved principal applicants, adding its own estimate of spouses and children.

An earlier analysis by David Bier of the Cato Institute put Indians at about 1.1 million, or 63 per cent, of a 1.8 million-case backlog across all employment-based categories in 2023. Bier estimated a 134-year wait for new Indian applicants in EB-2 and EB-3 combined.

The State Department's October 2026 Visa Bulletin, the first of fiscal year 2027, lists a final action date of November 1, 2013 for Indian EB-2 applicants. For most other countries, the EB-2 cut-off is January 1, 2025.

The EB-3 date for India is January 1, 2014, against May 15, 2024 for most countries.

In the September bulletin, the last of fiscal 2026, EB-2 was listed as 'U' for India, meaning no visa numbers were authorised. The November bulletin has not yet been published.

Under Section 202 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the per-country limit for preference immigrants is 7 per cent of the combined family and employment-based annual limits.

For fiscal 2027, that works out to 25,620, the bulletin says, with the worldwide employment-based level set at "at least 140,000".

Gottheimer was among the 365 members who voted for the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act in July 2019, according to the House Clerk's roll call.

The bill, which would have scrapped the per-country cap for employment-based green cards, passed 365-65 but did not become law.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

IANS

[email protected]