Indian immigrants in the US were hit hardest after new data released from the US visa office stated that the American government wasted around 66,781 unused employment-based green cards in the year 2021.
Despite 1.4 million immigrants queuing up for green cards, a majority of which are Indians, the US government used 195,507 of the 262,288 available green card numbers, wasting 66,781 green cards, wrote a research fellow at Cato Institute David J Bier on the US Think Tanks' blog.
Bier noted that this green card wastage has affected the Indian immigrants way more than any other group as they make up 82 per cent of the immigrants waiting as a result of the caps.
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He added that with 84 per cent of unused applications, the EB-5 investor category witnessed the most green card wastage in the year 2021, while the 'greatest waste' came from the EB-3 category for (mostly) undergraduate degree holders, wasting at least 19,774 green cards last year.
Bier further explained that if any EB-4 (religious or special) and EB-5 (investors) numbers remain unused, then they are supposed to be taken by the EB-1 category. However, if EB-1 does not use all of them, they can be used by EB-2, and then any unused EB-2 cards can be used by the EB-3 category. This implies that EB-2 could have used 1,07,000 green cards, and EB-3, 1,22,000.
Bier observed that if the rest of the world declines to use all the green cards available to them, then Indians can get over seven per cent of the total.
Meanwhile, the employment-based cap observed in FY 2022 is even higher at 2,81,430 than last fiscal year. Bier said that if numbers from both FY 2022 and statements of officials and attorneys are to be believed, then it is quite clear that the agency will "duplicate their poor performance in FY 2021" as well.
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In concluding the blog post, he called upon the Biden administration to show its commitment toward legal immigration by making sure that all the available green cards get used this FY 2022.
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Source: Times of India (TOI)
