Share:

Retain High-skilled Legal Immigrants in USA

increase employment permanent visa numbers or recapture visas lost in the past

Dear Mr. President and Members of Congress,



We are legal immigrants living in U.S.A for many years, paying taxes and helping the economy grow. We would like to be part of the future growth of this country. We have millions of illegal immigrants in this country and we understand because of the huge numbers most of the congressional actions are focused towards them. But in the process there are millions of us who moved here legally and have followed all the rules and regulations of this country and we feel we have been ignored for years by the congress and a president along with the general public and media. This country has its foundation based on the immigrants from all around the world and the immigrants have help keep foundation strong for decades. and now these legal immigrant community is struggling to stay in this country because:

1) 140,000 total numbers for employment based immigrants per year worldwide vs. 1 million applicants and their families waiting in the line. Some from 2001 and may be before that ! It's common sense that it will take at least 6 years to clear just the current backlog, if there were no per country quotas.



2) Per country quotas of 7% exacerbate the situation to applicants from high-demand countries like India, China, Mexico and Phillipines. Approximately just 10,000 visa numbers are available to India where as it's estimated that at least 44% of the applicants may be from India ( based on USCIS statistics of around 44% of H1bs being granted to India every year). As spouse and children are counted, considering 4 members per family, on an average only 2500 Indian applicants get Green cards in a year. As you can see the numbers are dismal.



Meaning, if you are from India, China, Mexico or Phillipines, you may have to wait 10 to 12 years to get your Green Card or more



3) Between USCIS and DOS (Department of State that runs the Visa bulletin) at least 20,000 visas get wasted every year, worsening the already BAD situation. For instance between 1994 and now 218,000 GCs were wasted by USCIS. If the trend continues, it may well mean 10+ years worldwide and 15+ years for India/China/Mexico/Phillipines.



And we are aware that you are aware of the problems but there hasn't been any action taken from the congress or president to help us. Below are few suggestions from us and we request you to take action before next election.



1) Increase worldwide Employment Based Green Card numbers to 290,000 per year or more

2) Eliminate country quotas or increase them to rational levels such as 10%-15%

3) Exempt spouses and children ( dependents) from the Green Card quota (this will effectively double the quota)

4) Since USCIS inefficiency cannot be fixed by us, implement a 'Rollover' of unused visas to the next year(s)

5) Recapture the unused number of 218,000 visas . This may mean we can get Green Card sooner (reducing our wait time tremendously)



Thank you