Indians may face 179-year wait for US green cards, Congressman warns
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US Congressman Josh Gottheimer has renewed his push to remove country-based limits on employment green cards, highlighting the decades-long delays faced by Indian professionals seeking permanent residency.
The New Jersey Democrat cited estimates suggesting that Indians applying under the EB-2 category could face a wait of up to 179 years, urging the US to address the backlog while maintaining its immigration laws.
The projection comes from an August study by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), which estimated that Indian nationals accounted for nearly 997,000, or 79 per cent, of the 1.26 million people awaiting green cards across the first three employment-based preference categories as of December 2025.
The US State Department's October 2026 Visa Bulletin, which marks the beginning of the 2027 fiscal year, places India's EB-2 final action date at November 1, 2013. For most other countries, the cut-off is January 1, 2025. India's EB-3 date stands at January 1, 2014, compared with May 15, 2024, for most other countries.
Under current immigration law, each country is generally subject to a 7 per cent limit on preference-based immigrant visas.
Gottheimer supported the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act in 2019, which passed the House with 365 votes but did not become law. The proposed legislation sought to eliminate country-specific limits on employment-based green cards.
With IANS inputs