Nearly one million Indians are now caught in the US employment-based green-card backlog, accounting for about 79% of all applicants waiting in the EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3 categories, according to an analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP).
The situation is particularly severe for Indian professionals in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories. NFAP estimates that an Indian whose application was filed in January 2026 or later could face a potential wait of 179 years in EB-2 and 38 years in EB-3.
At the end of 2025, around 731,566 Indians were waiting in the EB-2 category, while another 213,414 were stuck in EB-3.
The main reasons are the limited number of employment-based green cards issued each year and the 7% per-country cap. The annual employment-based visa limit remains 140,000, including dependents, while no single country can normally receive more than 7% of the total allocation.
This hits India particularly hard because of the large number of highly skilled Indian professionals seeking permanent residence in the US.
The August 2026 Visa Bulletin highlights the scale of the delay. For Indians, the EB-1 priority date is October 15, 2022, while EB-3 is at January 1, 2014. EB-2 is listed as unavailable for August.
The backlog has continued to grow despite the US issuing additional employment-based green cards between 2020 and 2024. NFAP estimates that around 980,460 employment-based green cards were issued during those five years, about 280,000 more than the normal statutory allocation.
For many Indian professionals, the wait is made even longer by the labour-certification process, which can itself take two to three years.
NFAP argues that the problem cannot be solved simply by speeding up USCIS processing. The real issue is the limited number of immigrant visas available under US law and the per-country restrictions.
For thousands of Indian professionals already living and working in America, the result is harsh: they may spend decades on temporary visas while waiting for permanent residence.
For many Indians, the US green card wait is no longer measured in years — but in generations.
