Washington: Indians account for more than three-fourths of those highly skilled professionals waiting in queue to obtain legal permanent residence status in the US, popularly known as green card, according to the latest official figures. As of May 2018, there were 395,025 foreign nationals waiting for green cards under the employment-based preference category. Of these, 306,601 were Indians, according to the latest figures released by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This does not include counts of dependent beneficiaries associated with the approved immigrant petitions, it said.
India is followed in a distant second China, which currently has 67,031 Chinese waiting for green cards. Thereafter, none of the other countries have more than 10,000 people waiting for green cards. Other countries are El Salvador (7,252), Guatemala (6,027), Honduras (5,402), Philippines (1,491), Mexico (700) and Vietnam (521). Under the existing law, no more than 7% of green cards may be issued to natives of any one independent country in a fiscal year.
