New Delhi: A large number of Indians waiting to get green card to the US will die before they get the approval for permanent residency in the country, says a study.
Over 4 lakh of more than 11 lakh applicants will not get the approval in their lifetimes given the quantity of the pending backlog, NDTV reported citing a US-based thinktank Cato Institute.
A green card or a Permanent Resident Card, issued to immigrants, is a document that allows permanent residence in the country.
Cato Institute’s report said that Indians make up 63 percent of 18 lakh applicants waiting for green card now.
Alongside there are pending 83 lakh applications from the family-sponsored system.
Waiting for more than 134 years could mean ‘ a life sentence’ to a large number of applicants, the report said.
‘About 424,000 employment-based applicants will die waiting, and over 90 percent of them will be Indians. Given that Indians are currently half of all new employer-sponsored applicants, roughly half of all newly sponsored immigrants will die before they receive a green card,’ the report said.
The long wait for green card is slowly becoming a crisis despite Biden administration’s initiatives to solve it.
This will essentially put a lot of Indians seeking American dream in state a limbo.
‘These astounding backlogs and massive waits underscore that legal immigration to the United States is nearly impossible. Even to get to the point of entering the backlog takes an enormous amount of good fortune, and the lucky few that make it through the labyrinth face the daunting prospect of never actually receiving green cards in decades or even their lifetimes,’ the study was quoted as stating.