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The Road to a Green Card for Indian Nationals Remains Jammed

September 23, 2019 | Immigration Blog

Indian nationals continue to find themselves in a massive traffic jam on their way to their green card destination. There is no need to ask "Are we there yet?" because the car is barely moving. There is no need to change lanes because they are all backed-up.

The DoS recently released projections for priority date movement going forward into the new fiscal year. It does not look promising.

The prediction is for no movement at all for EB-1 until January 2020 at the earliest, and upgrades from EB-2 could make that worse. The DoS comments that EB-2 "will continue to have limited forward movement for the foreseeable future". With respect to EB-3s, it predicts that it will have "little if any forward movement until possibly January 2020."

Picture a sea of cars and honking horns. Drivers jostling for position but making little progress. Those that changed from the EB-3 lane to the EB-2 lane have come to a stop. Those that changed from the EB-2 lane to the EB-1 lane also had to slam on the brakes. Even the EB-5 lane has slowed down.

More cars keep entering the highway towards their green card destination, only exacerbating the congestion. The exit towards the USCIS green card interview is nowhere in sight.

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Andrew M. Wilson
Partner | Team Co-Leader - Immigration