70-Year Visa Wait

A skilled Indian national would need to wait 70 years to receive a green card, according to a US policy research group.

US law imposes a 7 percent per country limit for employer-sponsored immigrants, permitting just 3,000 green cards in the employment based third preference category. Presently, it estimates a backlog of 210,000 Indian professionals awaiting employment based green cards, which would require a 70 year wait.

“It is not in our interests to have the most important characteristic of an immigrant to America be the ability to wait a long time,” said National Foundation for American Policy executive director Stuart Anderson, who authored the report.