(Image source from: Greatandhra.com)

Indians account for more than three-fourths of highly skilled professionals waiting in queue to acquire Green Card, a legal permanent residence status in the United States, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

There were 3,95,025 foreign nationals waiting for Green Card under the employment-based preference category as of May 2018 in which 3,06,601 comprised of Indians. This does not include counts of dependent beneficiaries associated with approved immigrant petitions, the report said.

India is followed by a distant second China, which at present has 67,031 Chinese waiting for Green Card. Thenceforth none of the else countries have more than 10,000 people waiting for Green Card.

The other countries are El Salvador (7,252), Guatemala (6,027), Honduras (5,402), Philippines (1,491), Mexico (700) and Vietnam (521).

Indians have the age-long waiting period for Green Card as under the existing law. No more than seven per cent of the Green Cards may be issued to natives of any one independent country in a fiscal year.

The highly skilled and Indian Americans who come to the U.S. chiefly on H-1B work visas are the worst sufferers of the present immigration system which imposes a seven per cent per country quota on allotment of Green Cards.

Consequently, the current wait period for Indian skilled immigrants can be as long as 70 years for Green Card.

According to a newly-launched group, GCReforms.org, under the current regulation, skilled immigrants from India need to wait anywhere between 25-92 years for a Green Card due to per-country limits.

By Sowmya Sangam