Nearly one million Indians are currently stuck in the US employment-based green card backlog, highlighting the extraordinary length of the immigration queue faced by Indian professionals seeking permanent residency.
A new analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) estimates that 996,599 Indians were waiting across the EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3 employment-based categories as of December 2025.
That represents approximately 79% of the estimated 1.26 million people waiting across those three categories.
The most striking part of the analysis is its projection for Indians entering the queue today.
An Indian professional whose employment-based petition or labor certification application was filed in January 2026 or later could potentially face a wait of 179 years in the EB-2 category and 38 years in EB-3, according to the NFAP analysis.
The estimate does not mean that every applicant will literally wait for 179 years.
The figure is a projection based on current visa availability, backlog levels and existing immigration rules. Actual waiting periods could change if Congress alters immigration law, visa availability increases or people leave the queue.
The estimate also does not include additional government processing time.
Nearly 1 Million Indians in the Backlog
NFAP's estimate of 996,599 Indian applicants at the end of 2025 breaks down into three major employment-based categories.
The estimated Indian backlog was:
EB-1: 51,619
EB-2: 731,566
EB-3: 213,414
The EB-2 category therefore accounts for the overwhelming majority of Indian applicants waiting for employment-based permanent residence.
India's total backlog increased by 161,344 people, or 19.3%, between April 2020 and December 2025.
The EB-2 backlog grew by 17.6% during that period, while EB-3 increased by an even larger 51.1%.
The EB-1 backlog, in contrast, declined by 28.3%.
Why Is the Green Card Queue So Long?
NFAP points to two major features of US immigration law as key reasons for the prolonged wait.
The first is the annual limit on employment-based immigrant visas.
US law generally limits employment-based immigration to 140,000 immigrant visas per year. That figure was established by Congress in 1990.
The cap includes not only the principal applicant but also eligible dependent family members.
The second major constraint is the 7% per-country limit.
Under this rule, nationals of a single country generally cannot receive more than 7% of employment-based immigrant visas available in a fiscal year.
For a country such as India, where the number of highly skilled professionals seeking permanent residence is exceptionally large, the country cap can create a massive queue.
India and China face the same basic country limit as much smaller countries, which has been a longstanding source of debate within the US immigration system.
The combination of a large Indian applicant pool and relatively fixed annual visa limits means that demand can dramatically exceed the number of green cards available.
What Are EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3?
The three categories cover different types of employment-based immigrants.
EB-1 generally includes people with extraordinary ability, outstanding researchers and professors and certain multinational executives or managers.
EB-2 generally covers professionals with advanced degrees or exceptional ability. In some circumstances, a bachelor's degree followed by five years of progressive experience can be treated as equivalent to an advanced degree.
EB-3 covers professionals, skilled workers and other workers.
For Indian applicants, EB-2 has become the biggest bottleneck.
More than 731,000 Indians were estimated to be waiting in that category alone at the end of 2025.
More Green Cards Did Not Clear the Backlog
The backlog has continued to grow even though the employment-based immigration system received additional green cards during the pandemic period.
Between fiscal years 2020 and 2024, the employment-based categories received approximately 980,460 green cards.
That was about 280,460 more than the 700,000 expected over the five-year period.
The additional numbers resulted from unused family-based immigrant visa numbers becoming available after lower family-based issuance during the Covid-19 period and related processing problems.
Despite those additional green cards, the employment-based backlog increased by 20.6% over five years.
That illustrates how much demand has accumulated within the system.
The additional numbers helped applicants move forward but were not sufficient to eliminate the existing queue.
Labour Certification Adds More Delays
For many employment-based immigrants, the green card process includes a labor certification stage.
NFAP estimates that the process can itself take two to three years.
Department of Labor figures cited by the analysis showed an average processing time of 403 days for PERM applications under analyst review and 290 days for applications under audit review as of August 2026.
That means some applicants face significant delays even before they move deeper into the employment-based green card queue.
The combination of labor certification delays, immigrant petition processing and the visa backlog can turn the path to permanent residency into a process lasting many years or even decades.
Impact on Indians Already Working in the US
A large proportion of the Indian applicants affected by the backlog are already living and working in the United States.
Many remain in the country on temporary work status, including H-1B visas, while waiting for their green card priority dates to become current.
The prolonged uncertainty can affect major life decisions.
Applicants may face difficulties planning long-term careers, changing employers, purchasing homes, making family decisions or determining the immigration future of their children.
The problem also affects American employers.
Companies that rely on highly skilled foreign workers can face difficulties retaining employees when those workers remain tied to a lengthy permanent-residency process.
NFAP has warned that the long waits can make it harder for US companies to attract and retain skilled workers.
What Do the Latest Visa Bulletins Show?
The August 2026 Visa Bulletin illustrated how far behind Indian applicants remain in several employment-based categories.
For adjustment-of-status filings, Indian applicants needed priority dates earlier than October 15, 2022, for EB-1 and January 1, 2014, for EB-3, while EB-2 India was listed as unavailable at that point.
The September 2026 Visa Bulletin showed no change in those final action dates for India.
EB-1 remained at October 15, 2022, EB-2 remained unavailable and EB-3 stayed at January 1, 2014.
The bulletin also warned that the EB-1 India category could become unavailable if the annual limit was reached before the end of the fiscal year.
For filing applications, the September bulletin listed dates of December 1, 2023, for EB-1 India and January 15, 2015, for both EB-2 and EB-3 India, subject to USCIS guidance on which chart applicants can use.
A priority date is generally tied to the date the government receives the permanent labor certification application or, where labor certification is not required, the relevant immigrant petition.
The Problem Could Become Bigger
NFAP says Indian applicants in EB-2 and EB-3 who entered the process in 2025 or 2026 are more likely to face waits measured in decades rather than years, unless Congress changes the law.
The 179-year EB-2 projection has therefore become a powerful illustration of the scale of the backlog.
It is important, however, to understand that this is a statistical projection rather than a guaranteed individual outcome.
Future immigration legislation could dramatically change the calculation.
Congress could alter the annual employment-based visa limit, change the per-country cap or create other mechanisms to reduce the backlog.
Likewise, changes in demand or visa availability could affect the number of years applicants actually wait.
Why Indian Applicants Are Particularly Affected
India's position in the US employment-based immigration system is unusual because of the sheer number of Indian professionals seeking permanent residency.
Indian nationals make up a significant portion of the highly skilled workforce in sectors such as technology, engineering, healthcare and other professional industries.
But the number of employment-based green cards available to Indians does not rise in proportion to the size of the applicant pool because of the country cap.
That creates a structural mismatch between demand and available visas.
The result is a queue that can stretch across multiple decades.
For people who enter the queue in their 20s or 30s, the consequences can extend across much of their working lives.
A Growing Policy Debate
The size of the backlog has kept pressure on lawmakers and immigration-policy advocates to consider reforms.
One possible area of debate is the per-country limit.
Another is increasing the overall number of employment-based green cards.
Changes to either could significantly affect future waiting times.
However, any major reform would require congressional action.
Until such changes occur, the existing limits continue to determine how quickly applicants can move through the system.
What Happens Next?
For Indian professionals currently waiting, the most important factors will be future Visa Bulletin movement, the number of green cards made available each year and any changes to US immigration law.
Applicants must also keep track of their priority dates and the specific requirements of their employment-based category.
The current figures show why the green card issue has become a major concern for Indian professionals and US employers alike.
Nearly one million Indians are waiting, accounting for about 79% of the EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3 backlog.
The EB-2 category contains more than 731,000 Indian applicants alone.
And under current conditions, a new EB-2 applicant could face a projected wait measured in generations rather than years.
The 179-year figure is not a prediction that a particular individual will literally wait that long.
Instead, it is a stark measure of how far current demand has moved beyond the available supply of employment-based green cards.
Without significant changes to US immigration law or visa availability, the backlog is likely to remain a major challenge for Indian professionals seeking permanent residency.
For thousands of families already living in the United States, the issue is not simply about a visa number.
It is about the ability to build a stable long-term future in the country where they work and live.
