This year, a record-high number of employment-based green cards are available to applicants. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is confident that they will issue the allotment of green cards, all available visas, before the end of the fiscal year. Last year, USCIS was hindered by backlogs and an increase in work visa petitions, so many green cards went to waste.

A major difference between temporary work visas, like H-1B, and green cards is that green card holders can switch employers freely without losing their immigration status. The new increase in available green cards means that immigrants caught up in processing backlogs and per-country visa caps have higher hopes of obtaining permanent residence in the United States.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many U.S. embassies and consulate offices closed or operated with limited capacity. This caused many visa applications to roll over into the following year, creating a “front log” of applications and appointments that were being worked through significantly slower than necessary. In previous years when USCIS had failed to process the full allotment of green cards application, the agency was sued by a group of Chinese and Indian green card applicants.

In an attempt to solve this problem, USCIS has redistributed staff to have more people responsible for processing green cards. They have also adopted a “risk-based approach” to limit the number of interviews that need to be performed. They also encouraged applicants to transfer their applications to different categories with less demand. Additionally, in response to an increase of Afghan and Ukrainian applicants seeking humanitarian relief and a high staff vacancy rate, the agency has announced a goal to fill 95% of positions by the end of the calendar year.

The processing of green card applications would be of significant benefit to the U.S. economy and its workers, so USCIS is trying to process as many pending cases as possible regardless of the date on which they were filed.

If you have questions about your immigration status or any other immigration-related issue, contact us. We are with you every step of the way.