Indians May Have To Wait 179 Years For US Green Card. Here's Why

If an Indian national is applying for a US employment-based green card this year, they may have to wait up to an estimated 179 years to get in front of the queue. For Chinese nationals, the estimated wait is up to 25 years, according to a report by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) that analysed the US Citizenship and Immigration Services data.

The analysis examined backlogs in the employment-based first, second, and third preference categories, known as EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3 and found that Indian professionals are likely to encounter the longest delays because of visa backlogs, statutory limits on the number of visas awarded to each nation, and the strong demand for foreign-born scientists and engineers in America.

US immigration law limits the number of employment-based green cards that can be issued each year to about 140,000, with no more than 7 per cent awarded to nationals of any one country in a given year. As a result, as of December 2025, nearly one million people from India are waiting in the employment-based immigration backlog. 

According to the report, the employment-based backlog in the EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3 categories increased by 20.6 per cent in the past five years, reaching an estimated 1.26 million people by December 2025, up from about 1.05 million in April 2020. Category-wise, the backlog was maximum in the EB-3 category at 30.1 per cent, followed by 22.9 per cent in the EB-2 category and 16.6 per cent in EB-1.

As a result, any new application from a highly skilled worker from India with a labour certification application or an employment-based immigrant could potentially face a wait time of 179 years in EB-2, 38 years in EB-3, and four to five years in the EB-1 category. 

These extraordinary delays, often encountered while in H-1B temporary status, undermine US companies' ability to attract and retain talent and create significant hardships for individuals and their families, NFAP noted. 

Trump's Anti-Immigration Push

Since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House for a second term, he has pursued an aggressive deportation drive and immigration crackdown that includes revocations of visas and green cards and rejection of applications for a range of reasons, like political opinions and pro-Palestinian protests against US ally Israel's assault on Gaza.

He says the crackdown aims to improve domestic security. Indian immigrants are the second-largest foreign-born group in the United States, numbering about 3.2 million as of 2024, and the crackdown has affected them the most.

Trump's anti-immigration drive has been widely condemned by human rights groups as being discriminatory and in violation of free speech and due process rights. Rights groups also say the crackdown has created an unsafe environment in the US, especially for ethnic minorities who have raised concerns about racial profiling. 

While Trump campaigned in 2024 on a ​platform of stopping illegal immigration, his administration has also made legal immigration more difficult—for example, by imposing new and expensive ​fees for applicants for certain work visas.