{
  "id": 4510648,
  "title": "Green Card Update: Report Shows Applicants With Longest Wait Times",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/30/green-card-update-report-shows-applicants-with-longest-wait-times",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-30T22:04:39.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Newsweek",
    "slug": "newsweek",
    "url": "https://www.newsweek.com/green-card-update-report-shows-applicants-with-longest-wait-times-12385164"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A new analysis from the National Foundation for American Policy estimates that some applicants for permanent residency may face wait times stretching into the decades. The report examines backlogs in employment-based first, second and third preference categories, known as EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3. In the EB-2 category, a skilled worker from India filing a labor certification application by January 2026 or later could wait 179 years. For the EB-3 category, the wait could be 38 years, and four to five years in the EB-1 category. This backlog has accumulated over many years due to annual caps on employment-based immigrant visas, per-country limits and continued demand for highly skilled foreign workers. Indians filing in 2025 or 2026 could face wait times measured in decades if immigration law remains unchanged. The U.S. State Department says visa decisions are made with national security in mind, processing all applications in line with statutory requirements. The backlog primarily stems from two features of U.S. immigration law: a cap of 140,000 employment-based green cards annually, and a per-country cap limiting nationals of a single country to no more than 7 percent of available visas in a fiscal year. The analysis attributes the backlog to the way it accumulated, with significant approvals in the EB-2 category for Indians in fiscal year 2016, adding more than 90,000 people to the queue.",
  "summary": "Indian professionals could face green card waits of up to 179 years under U.S. immigration limits, a new NFAP analysis finds.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}