GC Crisis: Indian Families Facing Separation!

A staggering 1.34 lakh Indian kids living in the US with their parents will age out of their H-4 visa once they turn 21. This crisis will arise due to the Green Card policy that the US has and the increasing number of Indians migrating to the US on work visas.

The US has a policy of keeping 1.4 lakh Green Cards for employment-based applicants, out of which only 7% is allotted to a single nation, irrespective of the number of total applicants.

Green Card backlog from India has reached 10.7 lakh in March 2023, and for it to get cleared it will take around 134 years based on a survey conducted by David J. Bier, Associate Director, Immigration Studies.

It should be noted that Indians are one of the hardest working immigrant groups in the US, be it managing the big-techs of Silicon Valley or American hospitals or any other sector related to STEM. Indians have been contributing to the development of the US for a long time now and it puts a bad light on the American dream Indians have if there is no guarantee of a future for their kids.

If a policy change is not made soon, it will lead to separation of parents from their kids, who would have to leave the country they’ve grown up in for the one they have little to no knowledge about.