NEW DELHI:  If some US lawmakers have their way, thousands of skilled Indians —mostly IT professionals — will find it easier to get the Green Card, which allows them to live and work permanently in the US. According to a wire service report, several lawmakers are planning to introduce a legislation to eliminate per-country quota for issuing Green Cards to foreign nationals in the new Congress beginning January 3. Under the current Legal Permanent Residency (LPR) system there is a seven per cent per country quota on allotment of Green Cards, which in turn has led to a huge waiting period for skilled Indians who mostly use the H-1B work visas to enter the US.

A  recent report prepared by the  bipartisan Congressional Research Service says that if the per-country cap for employment-based immigrants was removed, Indians and Chinese would dominate the flow of new employment-based LPRs. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services says that 306,601 Indian nationals were awaiting Green Cards as of April 2018, followed by China with 67,031. But due to the cap, the current wait period for is nine and half years.

Proponents of eliminating the per-country cap argue that it would level the playing field and allow employers to sponsor job-based immigrants based on their skills. Opponents assert that it would allow India, China and the Phillippines to dominate the path to American citizenship, to the detriment of other countries.

An Indian official, however, warned that this was just a proposal, and until the US Congress actually starts debating it and taking a position on it, “prospective Green Card holders from India shouldn’t hold their breath.”