Indian IT professionals, many of whom have waited for more than a decade, will likely have to wait for much longer periods of time as nearly one lakh employment-based green cards are at the risk of getting wasted in less than 2 months from now.
The legal permanent residency status in the US, gained by the Green Card or more formally called as the Permanent Resident Card, is issued to immigrants of different countries. Holders of this document become legally eligible to reside in the United States of America permanently.
Compared to the usual 140,000 green cards issued every year, 2021 saw an increase in this number with 261,500 cards released as the quota for employment-based immigrants, as per Indian professional Sandeep Pawar.
However, these green cards will be a waste if the visas aren’t issued by September 30th, meaning decades-long wait time to secure the next one, he said.
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At least 100,000 green cards will go unused if the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) continue processing and issuing visas at their existing pace. A Department of State officer who is responsible for determining visa usage recently confirmed this news.
Speaking about the need for the Biden administration to take action in this regard, Mr Pawar said the extra 100,000 Green Cards available this year will become a dream unfulfilled for several Indian IT professionals in the US.
The White House chose not to answer questions related to this matter when media houses sought its comment.
To prevent the unfortunate event from happening, 125 people from India and China, currently residing in the US, have filed a petition.
Dozens of people waiting for the day to receive their green cards will have no hope to hang on to if these go to waste, Mr Pawar said, “There are hundreds of thousands of gainfully employed legal immigrants in the US who would benefit from these Green Cards. Many of them have been waiting for a decade or more to adjust to permanent resident status but have been unable to do so due to a lack of available visa numbers.”
Mr Pawar, who has been on the forefront fighting for the rights of Indian professionals awaiting their Green Cards for decades, said the families he has been voicing will finally get their permanent residency status if the USCIS does the task on time this year.
“Most potential beneficiaries, such as myself, are from India, a country that is the most backlogged due to inherently racist and discriminatory per-country quotas embedded in the INA. Many have spouses, mostly women, who are unable to work until they become permanent residents,” Mr Pawar said.
Several children will be forced out of the country through deportation as they will reach the ages soon. Despite this being the only nation they have ever known in their lives, the lack of a Green Card will rob them of the chance of living here, he said.
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In a meeting with President Joe Biden during a delegate conference, IMPACT executive director Neil Makhija said he requested him to amend the existing law pertaining to the immigration requirements. He urged him to abolish the Green Card quotas and maximum issued and furnish them to 200,000 children of parents who hold long-term visas.
The slow pace of processing was acknowledged and accepted by the US government who announced itself that there will be at least 100,000 slots wasted of the annual limit this year due to it.
David J Bier, a research fellow at the Cato Institute, blamed the Biden administration for wasting the Green Cards, in its op-ed in The Washington Post.
This wastage could lead to the Biden administration functioning during an era when one of the largest cuts to legal immigration in US history took place, if the laws and processing speeds aren’t revised, he added.
