US to process more employment green cards this fiscal year

On Friday, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which administers the immigration process, said eligible employment-based green card applicants could move to a higher preference category, as there was an ‘exceptionally high number’ of employment-based immigrant visas available in these categories for the ongoing fiscal year ending September 30.

“The overall employment-based annual limit for fiscal year 2022 is approximately twice as high as usual, because that limit includes all unused family-sponsored visa numbers from fiscal year 2021, which was approximately 140,000,” it said in a statement.

Eligible applicants can file to adjust their status to the EB1(priority workers) or second (non-citizens in professions with advanced degrees or exceptional ability).

Indian nationals face the longest wait times for an employment-based green card on account of the high number of applicants and annual country caps which restrict the number of visas that can be issued annually.

Sponsoring permanent residency for employees has also emerged as a way for technology companies to hold on to high demand, high skilled talent once they run out of extensions on their H-1B work permit.

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“This would be tremendously beneficial to people who have been waiting for many, many years. We are hoping a lot of people can get their green cards under the EB2 category if they move fast,” said Rajiv S Khanna, managing attorney at Immigration.com.

In the past, several people had downgraded their applications from EB2 to EB3 as that category was moving faster. They can now upgrade back to EB2.

“The USCIS wants to approve as many green cards as they can as there has been a huge spill over from the family quota. This has not happened in the past in such large numbers,” Khanna said.

In addition, under the relevant statute, any visas not required in the fifth employment-based preference category are made available in the first employment-based preference category, and any visas not required in the first employment-based preference category are made available in the second employment-based preference category.