Advocacy Group Asks US to Remove Green Card Cap Before Giving H1-B

Each year 1,20,000 employment-based green cards are issued, out of which only 8,400 are allotted to Indians. Image used for representation. 

(Photo: iStock)

Influential immigration advocacy groups like the immigration voice have voiced concern over Biden administration opening registrations for H-1B visa from 9 March onwards, and have urged them not to issue the the H-1B work visa to any individual born in India, till the time the ‘discriminatory’ country-cap on green cards is removed.

They condemn the discriminatory practices that cap the number of Indian citizens who can legally come to the United States and become a permanent resident.

After the registrations are opened for the fiscal year 2021, it will only increase the backlog with more citizens getting in line to wait for years before they become a permanent resident.

As reported by the PTI, the president of the NPO Immigration voice, Aman Kapoor released a statement saying, “Lives of their families will be completely subject to the whims of their employer, new administrations, or even individual immigration adjudicators having a bad day.”

The NPO consisting of almost 1,30,000 people understand the difficulties faced by Indians when they need to continuously go back to get their visas renewed, while continuing to work for the government. The backlog consists of over a million people with the wait time estimated to be 195 years, reported PTI. The wait time could grow to 436 years by 2030.

Each year, 1,20,000 employment-based green cards are issued, out of which only 8,400 are allotted to Indians, whereas out of the 85,000 new H-1B visas available each year, nearly 70% (60,000) go to Indians, said Immigration voice. This creates disruption for a lot of people from the IT sector who usually go to the United States for better wages and job opportunities.

This discriminatory practice allows the US government to utilize the skills of highly educated Indian workers working in research, development, science, and engineering while also keeping green cards for people from other countries.

(With inputs from PTI)