150-Year [Green Card] Wait for Indian Immigrants With Advanced Degrees

CATO Institute ^ | 8 June 2018 | David Bier

[COBOL2Java]

I have previously written that no one knows how long legal immigrant workers will have to wait for permanent residency (i.e. green cards) in the United States, particularly from India where the wait times are the longest. But now U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has released the number of applicants for each category, so we can compute rough estimates of the number of years it will take people applying today to receive their green cards.

Table 1 provides the data. As of April 20, 2018, there were 632,219 Indian immigrants and their spouses and minor children waiting for green cards. The shortest wait is for the highest skilled category for EB-1 immigrants with “extraordinary ability.” The extraordinary immigrants from India will have to wait “only” six years. EB-3 immigrants—those with bachelor’s degrees—will have to wait about 17 years. The biggest backlog is for EB-2 workers who have advanced degrees. At current rates of visa issuances, they will have to wait 151 years for a green card. Obviously, unless the law changes, they will have died or left by that point.

[Lurkinanloomin]

We do not want any more Indians who do not want to speak like Americans, dress like Americans and be Americans.
Most that I meet and see are Indians in America, not Americans from India like Dinesh D’Souza.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Two things:

1. They have no privilege or right to be here. This is not their country and they don't make the rules.
2. The Indian educational system is so corrupt that "advanced degree" means nothing. Cheating and bribery are standard operating procedure in Indian schools. The idea of an honor system or honor court is not part of their universe. They are frauds.

[heterosupremacist]

Too bad. Hey, if you want to emigrate from your S****ole, you have other opportunities. But everybody else in your pathetic country is looking to come here too. The backlog is insane. I agree. It is the way it is simply because of the numbers involved. Tough luck. Current Population of India in 2018 1,349,968,546 (1.34 billion) As of June 02, 2018 http://www.indiaonlinepages.com/population/india-current-population.html

[heterosupremacist]

http://www.indiaonlinepages.com/population/india-current-population.html

[SpeedyInTexas]

151 years sounds reasonable to me!

[Liz]

ping

[thoughtomator]

An “advanced degree from India” is better known in the US as “resume fraud”.

[bgill]

We obviously have too many. Show them the door and lock it behind them.

[Teacher317]

+1

Beat me to it.

[proxy_user]

If only we could send US citizens of our choosing to India in exchange...

[upchuck]

Backlog be damned. Can they speak understandable English?

I’m really tired of call center employees who can’t speak understandable English. “I hear you just fine. But I can’t understand the words you’re saying.” Should never happen.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Thanks. Here's some links for anyone interested.

• How exam cheating in India is symptomatic of a much bigger problem
• Academic dishonesty in Indian medical colleges
• India's 'cheating mafia' gets to work as school exam season hits j
• India test cheating stirs outrage — then people start dying
• Academic dishonesty in Indian medical colleges
• Does Indian Education System Encourage Cheating In Exams?
• Academic dishonesty

Anyone working in the tech field knows that the H-1B Indian "computer whiz kids" are anything but that. You should hear the war stories of incompetent Indians with "advanced" degrees who can not solve a simple CS-101 problem (e.g. "bubble sort").

[dsc]

Sucks to be born in India.

Tough shit.

Bye.

[Rembrandt]

I am an American, born and raised. There are currently more than 190 countries in the world. Let’s assume that half of those want to send people to the U.S. MX seems to think 2 million is a good number, though they will prob. think 3 mil is the right number as soon as they have 2 in the U.S. If 95 other countries send 2 million each to the U.S., that would make 190 million in addition to the 340 or so we already have. At what point do U.S. people foresee the need to send some people out? Who leaves? Political U.S. enemies or illegal immigrants?

[jiggyboy]

Fine, but we have enough unemployed native-born engineers as it is already. Let them wait.

[zeestephen]

If they are so smart, so well educated, and so productive, why does India make no attempt to keep them in their home country?

By the way, anyone who thinks Asian Indians are pro-business or pro-Republican needs to think again.

80% of Indian-American citizens voted to reelect Obama in 2012.

After a quick scan of 2016 voting, it looks like Hillary Clinton got close to 80% of the Asian Indian vote, too.

[Cronos]

Then the USA needs to revamp its entire immigration system - make it points based rather than a lottery it is right now

Right now it is the worst of all options - instead of getting "Americans from India", you get the "Indians in America"

[zeestephen]

Re: “Academic dishonesty in Indian medical colleges”

Ouch.

Thanks for the update, Governor.

Both my G.P. and my dentist are Asian Indians, although they do seem to be qualified.

I am in a Medicare HMO obviously. Not one doctor on their Dermatology staff has a Western European name.

By the way - I will guess that most Freepers are not aware that the Immigration Act of 1965 places no quota on the number of foreign MDs who can be admitted into the USA.

[9YearLurker]

Really? You see (hear) Indians in the US not speaking English?