
Ending country quota for Green Cards will lead to Indian, Chinese domination on path to US citizenship: Report
Removing country limits for Green Cards will drastically reduce waiting time for those in queue, mostly from India and China, and protect them from exploitative employers, but will also lead to people of these two countries dominating this route to US citizenship, according to a new report.
“Indian (and to a lesser extent Chinese and Filipino) nationals wait in much longer queues of pending employment-based petitions” for Green Card than their counterparts from other countries, and thus, “consequently must wait the longest”, said the Congressional Research Service, a non-partisan government body that supplies research to US Congress, in a December report.
A legislation was before the US Congress at the time to remove the country limit, which lapsed with the previous body and is likely to be reintroduced for passage afresh in the new Congress that takes charge on Thursday.
The report summed up for legislators the pros and cons of removing the country limit that have long accompanied the debate. Those in favour have argued, the report said, that the wait periods for a lot of them are “excessively long”, 150 years for India, by one estimate; “discriminates against some foreign workers based on their country of origin”; and leaves them vulnerable to “potential exploitation” by their employers, who sponsor the Green Card application and can withdraw it; and that the US might be driving away talented people to other countries because of the waiting period, specially Indians..
Those against, the report said, have argued, chiefly, that “it would substantially reduce the country-of-origin diversity and potentially allow a few countries to dominate all permanent employment-based immigration, such as those from India and China.
There are 3,06,601 Indians waiting for their Green Card, which is a step away from US citizenship, accounting for almost 78% of the total 3,95,025 in the category of employment-based immigration — a majority of them on H-1B visa for highly skilled foreigners. The Chinese are in the second slot with a count of 67,031, but on a different employment-based immigration route, one meant for investors.
At issue is a country limit that prevents people from any one country from accounting for more than 7% of the annual intake in all categories. US grants 6,75,000 permanent residency in all categories (it goes up to 1 million because of flexibility to accommodate family-linked immigrants).
Of these, 1,40,000 are set aside for employment-based applicants, those coming in on H-1B, for instance, or those seeking permanent residency on ground of exceptional ability.
The pressure in the H-1B-type of employment-based category is the highest because of rising flow of Indians hired by both US companies and US-based Indian companies. The wait for Indians could go up to 150 years because of mounting backlog, according to one estimate.
There has been widespread bipartisan recognition of and support for removing the country limit to deal with the backlog. Legislative efforts to that end have not succeeded despite the support and often times, are just short of being passed. A Bill, to that effect, with enough bipartisan support, died in the last Congress during the stalemate over President Donald Trump’s wall.

ISRO to launch Amazonia-1, 18 co-passenger satellites onboard PSLV-C51 on Feb 28

What are Railways' new Vistadome coaches? All you need to know

News updates from HT: Months before Chamoli flood, satellite images showed crack

Kashmir: National Conference, PDP welcome ceasefire along LoC

'Money laundering charge established': UK judge clears Nirav Modi's extradition

'When will smart cities be built, rivers cleaned': Akhilesh Yadav asks BJP

Indian expats in UAE seek exemption from self-paid Covid tests on arrival

Months before Chamoli tragedy, satellite images showed crack in mountain ice

Covid-19 spike in Mumbai: Here's how the hotspots changed in 9 days

India, Pakistan agree to follow all ceasefire pacts

Would be compelled to take pre-emptive strike against imminent attack: India

‘All pass’: Tamil Nadu CM says no final exams for classes 9,10, 11
- The state board exams are usually held in March, but had been postponed to April this year, due to the pandemic.

57 countries back India's demand for IPR waiver on Covid-19 vaccine: Goyal
- In October of last year, India and South Africa proposed a TRIPS waiver for all WTO members to allow greater access to affordable Covid-19 healthcare facilities

Self-regulating body, monthly compliance reports: Govt's social media guidelines

NSA Doval led secret back-channels talks with Pak for months before DGMO pact
- The first sign that India-Pakistan back-channel conversations were on track came this month when Pak army chief Gen Bajwa said it was time to extend a hand of peace in all directions