As of September 29, 2021, there are more than 80,000 green cards available and waiting for processing. Unless assigned or deferred to FY 2022 by Thursday, September 30. 2021, the green cards will expire. There are over one million residents in the U.S. who have been waiting for a green card, despite being legal residents of the U.S., some for decades.
An additional 120,000 visas were allotted for the current fiscal year from unused family visas in previous years. However, between the pandemic and sheer manpower issues, USCIS has not been able to process applications fast enough to meet the expiration deadline.
Without action by Congress to preserve these green cards, they will simply disappear. The next fiscal year, which begins on October 1, 2022, will revert to the annual allotment per the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
USCIS, dealing with a reduced processing capacity since the start of the pandemic continues to approve green cards. However, the speed of completion has understandably been affected due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In comparison with prior years, the average green-card processing time is up two months from last year to 10.5 months. In some cases, green-card applications have been waiting for processing for up to five years.
The INA limits the number of applicants based on their country of origin to a cap of 7% of the total allotment by visa type. However, Indian and Chinese immigrants make up a large portion of the skilled workers applying for employment-based visas. As such, the waiting time for these individuals is substantially higher than the average applicant. The INA allows for unused visas by country to be reassigned to countries where demand is higher, softening the impact. However, the current number of Indian nationals waiting for visas and green cards that are already legal permanent residents could use all available visas for FY2022.
USCIS is working on processing as many applications as possible, as quickly as possible.
The only remaining option is for Congress to roll the unused green cards from the current fiscal year to FY2022, with only 1 day remaining to do so.
If you have questions about your green card or any other immigration-related issue, contact us at ILBSG. We are here to help and ensure you get the right advice.
