Washington:
If an Indian nationwide is making use of for a US employment-based inexperienced card this yr, they might have to attend as much as an estimated 179 years to get in entrance of the queue. For Chinese language nationals, the estimated wait is as much as 25 years, based on a report by the Nationwide Basis for American Coverage (NFAP) that analysed the US Citizenship and Immigration Providers knowledge.
The analysis examined backlogs within the employment-based first, second, and third choice classes, generally known as EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3 and located that Indian professionals are prone to encounter the longest delays due to visa backlogs, statutory limits on the variety of visas awarded to every nation, and the robust demand for foreign-born scientists and engineers in America.
US immigration legislation limits the variety of employment-based inexperienced playing cards that may be issued every year to about 140,000, with not more than 7 per cent awarded to nationals of anyone nation in a given yr. Because of this, as of December 2025, almost a million individuals from India are ready within the employment-based immigration backlog.
In response to the report, the employment-based backlog within the EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3 classes elevated by 20.6 per cent previously 5 years, reaching an estimated 1.26 million individuals by December 2025, up from about 1.05 million in April 2020. Class-wise, the backlog was most within the EB-3 class at 30.1 per cent, adopted by 22.9 per cent within the EB-2 class and 16.6 per cent in EB-1.
Because of this, any new utility from a extremely expert worker from India with a labour certification utility or an employment-based immigrant may probably face a wait time of 179 years in EB-2, 38 years in EB-3, and 4 to 5 years within the EB-1 class.
These extraordinary delays, typically encountered whereas in H-1B momentary standing, undermine US corporations’ capability to draw and retain expertise and create vital hardships for people and their households, NFAP famous.
Trump’s Anti-Immigration Push
Since US President Donald Trump returned to the White Home for a second time period, he has pursued an aggressive deportation drive and immigration crackdown that features revocations of visas and inexperienced playing cards and rejection of purposes for a spread of causes, like political beliefs and pro-Palestinian protests towards US ally Israel’s assault on Gaza.
He says the crackdown goals to enhance home safety. Indian immigrants are the second-largest foreign-born group in the US, numbering about 3.2 million as of 2024, and the crackdown has affected them essentially the most.
Trump’s anti-immigration drive has been broadly condemned by human rights teams as being discriminatory and in violation of free speech and due course of rights. Rights teams additionally say the crackdown has created an unsafe setting within the US, particularly for ethnic minorities who’ve raised issues about racial profiling.
Whereas Trump campaigned in 2024 on a platform of stopping unlawful immigration, his administration has additionally made authorized immigration tougher—for instance, by imposing new and costly charges for candidates for sure work visas.
