US Green Card: How the country’s 7% cap can trap 1 million Indians in a 179-year wait – is there a way out? Expert weighs | Today’s news

According to a Hindustan Times report citing an analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), Indian professionals seeking permanent residency in the US may face extraordinarily long waits, with processing times stretching up to 179 years for certain categories of green cards.

“According to an analysis by the National Endowment for American Policy, a highly skilled alien from India with a labor certification or employment-based immigrant petition filed on or after January 2026 has a potential waiting time for a green card (permanent resident) of 179 years in employment-based second preference (EB-2), 38 years in employment-based first preference (38 years in employment-based first preference and 3 employment-based) (1EB- Mentioned August Brief overview of NFAP policies.

The study estimates that nearly one million Indian nationals are currently caught in the green card backlog, representing approximately 79% of the total number of applicants waiting in the queue. Green card restrictions by country have reportedly led to significantly longer wait times for Indian professionals in the US seeking permanent residency.

Indian professionals currently have three main employment-based ways to obtain a US green card. The EB-1, or First Preference, category covers people with exceptional abilities in fields such as science, business, art, and sports. EB-2, the second preference, is for workers with advanced degrees, while EB-3 covers professionals with bachelor’s degrees as well as other skilled workers.

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The US issues around 140,000 employment-based green cards each year. However, the rules generally limit nationals of any single country to a maximum of 7% of the total allocation.

In addition to these three employment categories, the system includes EB-4, which is for certain “special immigrants,” including religious workers, and EB-5, which is for qualified foreign investors.

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The analysis also points to the impact of country-specific limits on green cards, which have led to significantly longer waits for Indian applicants. In comparison, professionals from countries like China and the Philippines generally experience shorter queues.

Is there a way out?

The 179-year calculation overlooks the protections available to H-1B workers after their I-140 petition is approved, immigration attorney Rajiv Khanna told LiveMint.

Once they complete the required period, eligible workers can continue to receive H-1B extensions and wait for their green card priority dates to be current, he added.

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The expert noted that since the I-140 phase generally takes about one to one-and-a-half years, workers may also be able to switch employers while still qualifying for an H-1B extension beyond the usual six-year limit.

“The math ignores several facts. First, if an H-1B worker has worked in the green card process for 180 days after their green card transitional step, which is the I-140, is approved, they are guaranteed to keep the H-1B extension until the dates are current, which usually gets them a green card. Also, that process takes 10, 14 years.” he said.

“So the employee enjoys a certain degree of freedom at the point where they can even change employers and still get an H-1B extension beyond the 6-year mark. While it’s not an ideal setup, it certainly gives us some improvement, some relief from the drastic consequences of a long wait,” Khanna mentioned.

He identified another factor that could affect the projected wait: periodic fluctuations in the green card system. According to him, such changes have occurred several times and may lead to an increase in the number of approved green cards, or a shortening of waiting periods for some applicants.

“The other thing that the math ignores is that many times there are errors in the system that are not as common as people would think. Errors in the system cause the number of approvals and the number of Green Cards to increase. It has happened several times, so that keeps hope alive,” Khanna said.

“The freedom to change employers within a year and a half or so, combined with fluctuations in the system that can shorten the duration of a green card, is very helpful,” he noted.

He acknowledged the system isn’t ideal, but said having a green card would make it much easier for professionals looking to build a life in the United States.

“But it is, and many professionals, for several reasons, one of the main reasons used to be that we were on the cutting edge of a lot of technology; I’m not sure that’s true anymore, simply because of how the current administration has cut research funding and cut talent hiring,” the immigration attorney said.

“It has become very difficult to predict where the US will be in the next 10 years,” he warned.