US President Joe Biden is likely to address the excessive delays in the processing system of the Green Card, the White House has said.
“The president absolutely wants to address the delays in the Green Card processing system as well,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at her daily news conference on October 8.
If the delays in the Green Card processing system is addressed, it will benefit many Indians working in the US on the H-1B visa.
Indian IT professionals who are highly skilled and come to America mainly on the H-1B work visas have been suffering due to the current immigration system that imposes a 7 per cent per country quota on allotment of the coveted Green Card or permanent legal residency.
A Green Card, also known as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the US as evidence that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently in the US.
The H-1B visa is the most sought visa among Indian IT professionals. A non-immigrant visa allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees every year from countries such as India and China.
Indian technology professionals urged the Biden government and the US Congress to make necessary legislative changes not to let those Green Card slots expire.
The inordinate delay in the Green Card process of hundreds and thousands of talented Indian IT professionals, at times running into several decades, is one of the major issues among the Indian-Americans and their dependent children living in America.
Processing delays at the USCIS could push these much-needed employment-based visas to be wasted. As per the recent court filings, USCIS is currently at risk of wasting almost 83,000 employment-based visas, which expired on October 1, 2021. This is in addition to 9,100 unused employment-based visas from FY20.
Wasting these visas may cause a significant loss to American economic competitiveness and the healthcare industry. American businesses and healthcare providers were already struggling to fill the skilled and unskilled jobs gap before COVID-19. They continue to face labour shortages during recovery from the pandemic, stated Jen Psaki.
