[simoncion]

And yet, I've worked with H1-Bs who get their green card who are much, much younger than 132 years. Something doesn't add up here.

Are you perhaps relying on a number that has been inflated by relatively-recent staffing shortages?

[jltsiren]

Getting an employment-based green card normally takes a few years. That has increased by a year or two due to staffing shortages and backlogs caused by covid-era policies. But the real issue for immigrants from India (and to a lesser extent from China, Mexico, and Philippines) is the 7% country cap. Those who qualify for EB-1 can skip the line and get their green cards in a semi-reasonable time. Those in EB-2 and lower priority categories are out of luck.

[dartharva]

132 years is the waitlist now. And it will only increase, Indians will very likely be looking at a 200-year waitlist by the end of this decade.

The successful green card holders you mention are those who came in early (in the 2000s and 2010s) and got through before the situation became so crazy. Or, in some cases, O1-holders.

[simoncion]

I contrast this:

> 132 years is the waitlist now.

with this:

> Getting an employment-based green card normally takes a few years. ... But the real issue for immigrants from India (and to a lesser extent from China, Mexico, and Philippines) is the 7% country cap. Those who qualify for EB-1 can skip the line and get their green cards in a semi-reasonable time. Those in EB-2 and lower priority categories are out of luck.

I'm pretty sure that I've never worked with someone on a work visa who's legitimately an EB-1 [0], so everyone I've seen get permanent citizenship has been either an EB-2 [1] or (more likely) an EB-3 [2].

> The successful green card holders you mention are those who came in early (in the 2000s and 2010s).

It's strange (and borderline manipulative) to call "Getting their green card in 2019" "coming in early".

Anyway. Given that it seems the major cause for the lengthy wait (whether or not it's actually rising to 200 years) is per-country quotas (rather than staffing problems), the wait seems totally reasonable to me. Plus, with many US-based BigCos hiring assloads of Indian nationals situated physically in India, it strikes me that this concern about green cards is less relevant than in decades past.

[0] <https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent...>

[1] <https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent...>

[2] <https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent...>

[nujabe]

Your claims just do not add up with my experience. I know Indians who graduated college in the US in the past 4-5 years that have received their green cards in the past year.