Want a US green card? Some Indians could face a 179-year wait
3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Sep 2, 2026 03:22 PM IST
An Indian professional applying for an employment-based green card (permanent residence) in the United States this year may have to wait for an estimated 179 years due to a massive immigration backlog, according to an analysis by a US-based think tank.
The report stated that Indian professionals are projected to face the longest delays due to visa backlogs and statutory limits imposed on the number of green cards issued each year.
Nearly 1 million Indians stuck in green card backlog
The analysis, published by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), highlights that nearly 1 million people from India are stuck in the employment-based immigration backlog, which makes up 79 per cent of the total green card stockpile as of December 2025.
The report states that nationality-based green cards disproportionately affect Indian nationals compared to Chinese and Philippine nationals.
EB-2 wait for Indians could stretch to 179 years
The report estimates that a highly skilled worker from India with a labour certification application or employment-based immigrant petition filed in January 2026 could face a potential wait of 4 to 5 years for EB-1, 179 years for EB-2, and 38 years for EB-3 visa categories.
.
World · Immigration · India Focus
Approved for a green card — but still waiting
Each year tens of thousands of Indians are cleared in the EB-2 employment category, yet only a few thousand actually receive a green card. The rest join a queue that keeps growing.
264,521
approved (FY2016–18)
12,262
actually granted
252,259
Indians approved but not granted a green card in three years — only about 1 in 22 received one.
Approved vs granted, year by year
.Approved (est., with dependents)
.Green cards granted
FY 2016
→ 94,187 added to the queue
FY 2017
→ 81,600 added to the queue
FY 2018
→ 76,472 added to the queue
Why the gap exists
140,000
employment green cards a year for the whole world — a 1990 cap that also counts spouses and children.
7%
per-country limit — so a huge-demand country like India gets the same share as a tiny one.
Because Indian demand vastly exceeds that 7% slice, the approved-but-waiting pile grows every year — regardless of how many qualify.
Where it leads
731,566
Indians in the EB-2 backlog as of December 2025.
~179 yrs
the projected wait for an Indian filing in EB-2 today, on current conditions.
~79%
of the entire US employment green-card backlog is Indian.
For Indian professionals — most of them H-1B workers — approval is the easy part. The green card itself can be a lifetime away, and a job change or a child ageing out can reset the clock.
“Approved” figures are NFAP estimates that include spouses and children (in FY2016, 47,601 petitions represented an estimated 98,594 people). The ~179-year figure is a projection under today’s rules, not a guaranteed individual wait — it would change if the law, visa supply or queue changes.
Source: National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), based on US Citizenship and Immigration Services data. Backlog figures as of December 2025.
.
However, the NFAP estimates that for Chinese nationals who are applying for the same employment-based visa categories, the wait time would be 5 years for EB-1, 25 years for EB-2, and 7 years for EB-3.
Why is the US green card backlog so large?
Among the causes of the massive employment-based visa backlog, the think tank states that a cap of 140,000 is “too low for the number of skilled foreign nationals employers sponsor for permanent residence.”
Story continues below this ad
140,000 annual cap and per-country limit
Close to 140,000 green cards are available annually, and the limit was set by the US Congress in 1990, which includes both the principal and dependent family members. NFAP states that the second factor leading to a surge in the green card logjam is the per-country limit. As per US law, India and China are allotted the same number of green cards as Iceland and Luxembourg.
.
World · Immigration · India Focus
The green-card wait is a lottery of birth
Same visa category, same qualifications — but the wait for a US green card swings from a few months to well over a century, depending only on where you were born.
EB-2 · advanced-degree professionals
179 yrs
for an Indian applicant
vs
~0.3 yr
for a Filipino — a few months
The very same green card — a wait gap of roughly 600 times.
Estimated wait in 2026, by category
.
India
China
Philippines
EB-1
priority workers
4–5
years
None
no wait
EB-2
advanced degrees
EB-3
skilled workers
No waitA lifetime
India loses every column
In each category, Indians wait the longest by far — 179 years in EB-2 and 38 years in EB-3, against months or a few years for others with the same skills.
The reason is one rule: a 7% per-country cap on a fixed pool of green cards. It gives every country the same slice — so the more applicants a country sends, the longer its people wait. India sends the most; India waits the longest.
These are projected waits under today’s rules — estimates for someone filing now, not guaranteed individual timelines. They would shorten if the law changed, the per-country cap were lifted, or applicants left the queue. “None” means the category is current, with no backlog wait.
Source: National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), based on US immigration data. Estimates for 2026.
.
US State Department responds to visa limit concerns
However, a spokesperson for the US State Department has said that it is common for the employment-based visas to reach their annual limits for certain visa categories and nationalities before the end of the fiscal year, Newsweek reported. The department added that it routinely notifies on the website when annual limits have been reached.
How India’s EB-2 backlog grew
According to US government data on visa backlog, in FY 2016, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approved 47,601 applications under the EB-2 category for Indians, which translates into an estimated 98,594 people once dependents are included. However, the NFAP report shows that only 4,407 people from India were granted permanent residence in the EB-2 category in FY 2016.
More than 90,000 Indians likely added to backlog in FY 2016
The data shows that in FY 2016 alone, more than 90,000 people (principals and dependents) were likely added to the backlog. The trend continued in 2017 and 2018 as well.
Stay updated with the latest – Click here to follow us on Instagram
