Annually, the US reserves only 1.40 lakh green cards for job-based applicants and there is a 7% limit per country. Given the large influx of Indians into the US, most of them with a H-1B visa, this restrictive policy poses challenges.
India’s employment-based green card backlog (EB-2 and EB-3 rated category) reached 7.41 lakh in April 2020, with an expected lead time of 84 years. These are the findings of a recent study by David J. Bier, an immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institute, a think tank based in the United States. More than one lakh, or to be more precise: 1.36 lakhs of children from Indian families fall behind in this particular category and 84.675 of them (or 62%) will age without obtaining a green card.
Once the children turn 21, they can no longer continue their H-4 visa, which is for dependents and is linked to their parents’ H-1B work visa. As they get older (turning 21) they have no choice but to obtain an F-1 visa for international students, which comes with its own challenges, such as limited job opportunities while they are students and higher fees. Furthermore, F-1 visa applicants must demonstrate their intention not to immigrate; For children who have aged and whose family is in the US, meeting this requirement is another hurdle that must be overcome. The only other alternative is to self-deport to India, many of these children grew up in the US and have little or no connection to India and relatives who reside here.
Bier tweeted: “Employment-based immigrants from India and China endure many bad government policies … But the worst indignity it has caused these talented future Americans is how the system treats its children.”
In total, 2.56 lakhs of children are in the queue for a green card, including those in the category of qualified persons. Of the children in the EB-2 and EB-3 overdue categories for green cards, 1.57 lakh (62%) are from India, another 49,835 (20%) from China, and 46,394 (18%) from other countries.
Approximately 1.04 lakh of children will become ineligible over the next two decades. This is approximately 40% of all children’s green card accumulation. More than four in five of the aging children will come from India, a higher proportion even than their current share of the hoard (62%), the study states.
Bier adds: “Once again, the fact that Chinese and Indians dominate accumulation is a result of country limits where green cards are not issued proportionally to the number of pending applicants in each country, but are arbitrarily limited. at 7% by country of birth. ”
TOI had previously covered the situation for many of those children, who are referred to as H-4 dreamers. A student from Ohio, who is currently pursuing his master’s degree in technology, told TOI that he moved to the United States with his parents when he was only seven years old. “When I applied to graduate school, I was considered an international student. After completing my studies, I will continue to be treated as a foreigner and will be allowed to work only if I can obtain an H-1B visa. “The problem is compounded since, due to the significant increase in salary rates, in force since October for holders H-1B visa application, it will be impossible to get an entry-level job. There are three pending lawsuits against this pay increase in the US district courts. He admitted to being jealous, at times, of his younger sister who was born in the United States and you will not face these problems Citizenship by birth is enshrined in the United States constitution, even as President Trump has on occasion announced his plan to end this.
“These young people must fight to stay in the country where they grew up, graduated from high school and where they have built their lives. Even if they obtain a student visa, they must try to win an H-1B visa through the lottery system, where staying with their family and their country of adoption depends on chance. Of course, even if they get the H-1B visa, they are thrown into the bottom of a massive eight decade wait to get green cards, even though they had already waited in line for a decade or more with their parents, ”says Bier. in his study.
A bill, namely: S 386, which seeks to lift the green card limit per country was blocked in the United States Senate. While Biden’s proposed immigration policy includes increasing the number of employment-based green cards and removing country boundaries, creating unacceptably long delays, especially for India and China, these will need to be submitted through the House and the Senate. Therefore, according to immigration experts, introducing such a change will take time and the problem cannot be solved in a jiffy.
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