Green Cards based on Employment to be double for FY 2022

Over 290,000 Employment-Based Green Cards will be available.

When the covid hit worldwide, 2020 was the year when the processing of family-based US visa applications was at the bottom. Due to this, for the fiscal year 2021, there are over 150,000 US family-based and green card applications to remain unprocessed and therefore stuck to immigrate. The reason being US embassies abroad were closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A very low number of family-based green cards were approved in Fiscal Year 2020. This resulted in being “rolled over” to the employment-based green card category in FY 2021, which means there will be over 290,000 employment-based green cards available starting October 1, 2021. The figures clearly show the double in numbers what is available in the normal year. According to USCIS, the recent data shows that there are approx. 273,000 green cards that are employment-based still pending as of March 31, 2021. This is a big thing for employers and foreign national’s employees. Employment-based green card holders have the status of permanent residence. They can travel free anywhere in the United States with their family members.

So, the family bucket being moved to the employment bucket for the Green Card means a delay for family members who are eager to start life anew in America. There are many countries, where family-based visas are the main route to get permanent residence, including India-Americans, Mexico, the Philippines, etc. These countries are aggressive in sponsoring relatives to immigrate to the United States of America. Therefore, to apply if your employee or client meets the employment-based eligibility requirements, FY 2022 will be the best.