Explained | The U.S. presidential advisory panel’s proposal to recapture unused green cards

Read The Hindu explainer on U.S. presidential advisory panel’s proposal to recapture unused green cards which is likely to benefit Indian-Americans waiting for their green card.

The story so far: A U.S. presidential advisory commission’s recent recommendation to “recapture” over two lakh unused green cards to tackle the issue of backlog is expected to benefit thousands of Indian Americans waiting for permanent residency to stay and work in America.

In line with legislative proposals introduced in the U.S. Congress in the past two years to address backlogs, a sub-committee of the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders (PACAANHPI) recommended that all unused green cards in the family and employment categories since 1992 be recaptured. While the suggestion has been made to the White House, this doesn’t translate into immediate action as that would require a Congressional nod.

Immigrants to the U.S. are issued a document informally called the green card that allows them to live and work permanently in America with greater mobility and benefits. Officially known as the Permanent Resident Card, a green card comes with several benefits, including a pathway to citizenship and subsequently security benefits and protection. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) provide an outline of eligibility criteria and other specific requirements for applicants under a host of categories, including those applying through family and employment.

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Every year, the U.S. issues about 1,40,000 employment-based and 2,26,000 family-sponsored green cards to immigrants. However, there is a country-based quota system which is not adjusted based on population or a country’s demand. As per the current immigration system, there is a 7% per country quota on the annual allotment of the green card in these categories, which comes to around 25,600 visas. This means that even with an approved petition, people from countries with particularly high volumes of green card applications, like India and China, often have to wait for years to get a green card if the cap is filled. Over the years, the gap has widened due to increasing demand, leading to massive backlogs for legal immigrants.

More than 20 million applications are stuck in backlogs in 2022, according to David J. Bier, an immigration policy analyst at thinktank Cato Institute. Over the past two decades, the number of people on the waiting list for family-sponsored green cards has grown by over 100%, according to the Congressional Research Service.

As of 2020, approximately 4.2 million people were waiting for family-sponsored green cards with an average wait time of six years.. Skilled Indian workers on H-1B work visas are the most affected. From 2018 to 2019, the share of green cards awarded to Indians fell from 13% to 10% even as their share of petitions increased from 50% to 53%.