Green Card USA News
USCIS is under fire for its wasteful practices. In fact, a group of green card applicants filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington state. They argued that the waste is a “self-made crisis” and that the agency should count visas as issued only after the lengthy adjudication process is complete. Another similar lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge in Maryland, who based the claims on location.
Recapturing green cards
Recapturing green cards in the USA is a proven policy that reduces long waiting times and reunites families. It was first implemented in 1999 and recaptured 130,000 employment-based green cards. In 2005, the Real ID Act extended the window to five years and authorized an additional 50,000 employment-based green cards to nurses. The recaptured green cards were issued to individuals whose applications had been delayed for years.
The first version of the bill did not include provisions for green card recapture. However, this version would include provisions to reduce the backlogs in employment-based visas and family-based visas. The second version of the bill would extend these provisions for five years and then end them, making green cards more accessible for immigrant families. Although this plan is the most direct way to reduce green card backlogs, it does not solve the waste issue.
A new bill introduced in the House Appropriations Committee would allow DHS to recapture unused immigrant visas from the last 30 years. The plan would also make available visas to immigrants who have been blocked from entering the country during the Trump Administration’s travel ban. If approved, this legislation would allow tens of thousands of immigrants who had previously applied for a green card to get in the country.
The American Competitiveness in the 21st Act, passed in 1999, included measures for green card recapture. These measures allowed the government to identify an estimated 130,039 green cards that had gone unused between 1999 and 2000. The last phase of the green card recapture process came with the REAL ID Act of 2005. According to recent studies, approximately 15% of green cards have remained unused after being issued. This means that recapturing green cards in the USA is necessary for the country’s economic growth.
Reclassifying dependents of lawful permanent residents (LPRs) as immediate relatives
Reclassifying dependents of lawful permanent residences (LPRs) as immediate relatives would remove numerical limitations from immigrant visas and make immigrant visas immediately available to many LPRs. This would also provide an opportunity for spouses and minor children of LPRs to immigrate to the United States without completing the green card sponsorship process.
There are several requirements to be eligible for this status. First, the beneficiary should meet the legal definition of “child” under U.S. immigration law. Among other things, the child must be unmarried, under the age of 21 years old, and not be a stepchild. Second, the child must be biological or adoptive. The child must also be younger than 21 years old and be the beneficiary of the petition.
The INA also provides several categories of immigration. The most popular category is family-based immigration, with a primary focus on family reunification. Other categories include economic immigrants, humanitarian immigrants, and immigrants from countries with low immigration rates. There are many other reasons why people may want to immigrate to the United States. There are also policies to alleviate the backlog of green cards.
For instance, an LPR may wish to reclassify the parents of an LPR as his or her immediate relatives. In some cases, the parent of an LPR may have a child who is younger than 21 years old.
Expanding annual limits of green card issuance
Expanding annual limits for green card issuance would free up hundreds of thousands of unused green cards that are currently sitting on backlogs. This legislation would also prevent the loss of these green cards in the future, and allow workers who have been waiting for more than two years to expedite their process. The legislation would also exempt such workers from numerical and per-country caps.
As of now, the number of employment-based green cards issued each year is capped at 140,000 per year. But Congress is considering a new proposal called the Eagle Act that would expand the annual cap by removing employer-sponsored caps and allowing family-sponsored green cards to be issued to more people. The bill would also make the cap more flexible and allow immigrants with advanced degrees in STEM fields to work in the U.S. for up to six years on an H-1B visa before their green card application is approved.
While Congress has set annual limits for green card issuance, the government has not been able to meet them. Since many of these immigrants are family members, most of the available green cards have already been allocated to U.S. citizens and residents. The federal government failed to issue nearly 67,000 available green cards by Sept. 30 of this year.
There are tens of thousands of immigrants on the green card backlog in the U.S., and almost half of them are Indian. As a result, the wait times have been unbearably long. Immigration advocates have suggested that this backlog can be cleared up by recapturing unused green cards. The backlog has been accumulated over the last three decades.
