Synopsis
Some 540,000 family-based and around 170,000 employment-based green card applications are currently pending with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), show data from the agency. A May 22 memo announcing the policy did not specify whether it would apply only to new applications or also have retrospective effect.Listen to this article in summarized format
Some 540,000 family-based and around 170,000 employment-based green card applications are currently pending with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), show data from the agency. A May 22 memo announcing the policy did not specify whether it would apply only to new applications or also have retrospective effect.
While it is unclear how many Indians are in the current backlog, they are among the largest applicant groups for the green cards. A 2022 report from the US think tank Cato Institute estimated Indians’ green card backlog to be 719,737 the previous year, stating that it would take 90 years to process.
Applying anew from another country would create major hardships for many, especially those with families in the US and those navigating a tough, AI-disrupted, job market. It would also mean further delays in processing their applications.
In a statement to media platform Semafor, a USCIS spokesperson said those providing economic benefits or applications in national interest would be able to continue the current path, while others would be asked to file abroad. But the official did not clarify further.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio, who is in India on a four-day trip until May 26, said on Sunday that the immigration measures were not targeted at India but are being applied globally to address the migratory crisis in the US.
Increased visa denials and new measures such as the requirement to apply for green cards abroad have received criticism from tech industry leaders like Coursera cofounder Andrew Ng, AI pioneer Yann LeCun and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman.
In a post on X, Ng called the move “a capricious attack on legal immigration” that will hurt families, leaving the US with fewer doctors, teachers and scientists, and hurt American competitiveness in AI.
Hoffman termed it a harmful move for tech, business and the US, in a post on X.
Garry Tan, president, Y Combinator, in a post on X called the policy bad and misguided, and said the US needed to keep smart people in the country to build tomorrow’s businesses that employ millions of people.
Lack of clarity
The memo is silent on whether it applies to cases filed before May 21 or only to new filings, said Shilpa Malik, managing attorney at VisaNation Law Group. “That grey area is one of the most pressing open questions for the hundreds of thousands of people with applications already pending.”
According to her, processing of I-485 applications for permanent residency, or green cards, currently takes roughly 11 to 31.5 months for employment-based categories.
While adjustment of status, which refers to green card application from work or student visa, has always been discretionary, what the USCIS is doing is signalling to its officers how to use that discretion, pushing it beyond what was practiced earlier, experts said.
This is likely to result in litigation, said Boundless Immigration chief executive Xiao Wang. A lack of clarity when it comes to the retroactivity will be the most likely trigger for an injunction, he said. “I would predict that processing times will get longer as adjudicators also are adapting to the new guidance.”
The latest measures are in line with the ongoing scrutiny over skilled workers in the US under the Trump administration, including the $100,000 fee for fresh H-1B petitions.
This is creating a wave of confusion among the immigrants in the US.
Stressed employees, companies
The population that is hit the hardest is not undocumented immigrants but those who entered the US legally, on tourist visas, student visas, work visas, and who built lives there while their immigration cases were pending, said Boundless’ Wang.
“We're hearing more people ask about Canada and the UK than at any point in recent years. The US is making itself a harder sell, and the long-term talent consequences will affect the country for decades to come,” he said.
“Sponsored workers who have followed every rule for years are asking whether the system they relied on still functions predictably. That uncertainty itself carries a cost, independent of any individual case outcome,” VisaNation’s Malik said.
Malik also said employers are currently revisiting their hiring and retention strategies, particularly for roles they would have earlier relied on H-1B to green card pathways.
