WASHINGTON: Several Indian-American IT professionals have held two rallies in the US, demanding an end to the long and massive
green card backlog by eliminating per-country limit quota.
The rallies were organised over the weekend in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Participants argued that per country quota on issuing of Green Cards per annum was the main reason for the backlog.
They displayed posters with 'Remove Per Country Limits for employment based Green cards', '300,000 waiting for 90 years' and 'What did I do wrong'.
"It's high time the congress, senate and
white house administration works on this issue and solves the problem of High Skilled immigrants," GCReforms, organisers of the rallies said in a statement.
Having a green card allows a person to live and work permanently in the US.
Indian-Americans, most of whom are highly skilled and come to the US mainly on H-1B work visas are the worst sufferers of the current immigration system which imposes a seven per cent per country quota on allotment of green cards or permanent legal residency.
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New guidelines put restrictions on work that can be done during the critical Optional Practical Training (OPT) period after the completion of first year, which for most students determines whether they can nurture the hope of getting an H-1B visa, and subsequently, permanent residency.
As a result, the current wait period for Indian skilled immigrants for green card can be as long as 70 years.
At the Pennsylvania rally, three children -- Leela Pinnamaraju, Siva Pragallapati and Venkat Daita -- shared the stories of H4 Kids and how they will become out of status at the age of 21.
They requested lawmakers to treat all kids equally in the current immigration discussion. Kids who came to the US legally with their parents who work in US companies should also have a pathway for citizenship.
File picture from a similar protest held in March in Seattle (Image Courtesy: Twitter handle @startupcrunch)