Employment-based (EB) green cards are provided to foreign nationals who are seeking permanent residence and are sponsored by employers to work in the United States.  EB green card holders are well-educated job creators who must pass strict labor market tests in order to be eligible for admission.

• Reform of the permanent EB visa (“green card”) process is urgently needed to enable American employers to hire and retain the talent necessary to remain globally competitive.
• Tremendous backlogs in the EB green card system force thousands of highly educated and sought-after professionals to remain in legal and professional limbo for years.
• Many foreign workers seeking EB green cards are already in the United States, having graduated from U.S. universities.  They often remain on H-1B visas while they wait for permanent residency.
• EB green card applicants are put at a significant professional disadvantage when stuck in a holding pattern for up to nine years or more on an H-1B or L-1 visa.  Without a green card they are unable to seek promotions, move to a new city or change jobs. 
• L-1 visa holders seeking permanent residency do not have the advantage of extending their visa status beyond their period of stay while they wait for a green card.
• Many of these valued employees become frustrated with the inefficiencies in the U.S. immigration system, and America loses this valuable talent when they give up and either move home or seek employment in more welcoming countries that are direct economic competitors of the United States.

The annual EB green card cap of 140,000 is allocated equally among all countries and covers five worker preferences. 

• The EB-1 visa is for “priority workers” and is allocated 40,000 visas per year (28.6% of the 140,000 cap) for workers of “extraordinary ability” in science, the arts, education, business or athletics as well as “outstanding professors and researchers” or “multinational executives and managers.”  In FY 2009, approximately 40 percent of allotted EB-1s went to workers and approximately 60 percent went to spouses and children.¹
• The EB‐2 visa is for workers in professions holding advanced degrees or persons of exceptional ability. The number of visas available annually in this category are 40,000 (28.6% of the 140,000 cap), plus any visas that are not used in the EB‐1 category.  In FY 2009, roughly 48 percent of these visas went to workers and approximately 51 percent to spouses and children.²
• The EB‐3 visa is for skilled workers, professionals, and lesser skilled workers referred to as “other workers.”  The annual limit for workers in this category is 40,000 (28.6% of the 140,000 cap), plus any visas that are not used in the EB‐2 category for that year. However, no more than 10,000 visas can be allocated to the lesser skilled “other workers” in this category.  In FY 2009, about 42 percent of EB-3 visas went to skilled workers with about 54 percent going to such workers’ spouses and children.³
• The EB‐4 visa is for certain special immigrants such as religious workers, some physicians who have residence in the U.S. for a number of years, some dependents of diplomats and others.  It is limited to a maximum of 10,000 visas per year (7.1% of the 140,000 cap).  In FY 2009, about 52 percent of these visas went to workers and roughly 48 percent to spouses and children.⁴
• The EB‐5 visa is for investor immigrants who create employment. Each investor must invest between $500,000 to $3 million in a job-creating enterprise and employ at least 10 U.S. workers.  It is limited to a maximum of 10,000 visas each year (7.1% of the 140,000 cap).  In FY 2009, approximately 35 percent of EB-5s went to workers and about 65 percent went to spouses and children.⁵

Unreasonable caps that lead to insufficient allotments and extreme administrative processing delays turn talent away and discourage valuable professionals from applying for a visa through the U.S. EB green card system, while holding tens of thousands of highly educated applicants in legal and professional limbo for years.

• Unlike the H-1B quota, spouses and children count against the EB green card quota, taking over half the visas available annually.  This leaves fewer green cards for highly educated workers.
• In 2000, Congress passed legislation which allowed the use of approximately 130,000 unused visas from the 1999 and 2000 fiscal years to be used in future years when the 140,000 annual limit was reached. This allowed additional visas to be issued in the EB‐2 and EB‐3 categories.
• In addition, individual countries are subject to annual ceilings under the EB green card quota.  For professionals born in high-demand countries, such as India and China, the wait can span up to an additional nine years beyond the normal adjudication process of two to three years, even if the worldwide visa limit is not reached.

The Department of State (DOS) regulates the flow of EB green cards to ensure that the annual worldwide limit of 140,000 is not exceeded.

• When DOS believes that the overall cap or per country cap will be reached, it cuts off applications by imposing a “cut-off” date and will only accept green card applications with a “priority date” (or place in the queue) before the cut-off date.

EB green card backlogs have happened before, and Congress acted to provide relief; however, increased demand for these highly educated foreign professionals has made relief elusive at best.

• The current annual allotments of EB green cards were set in 1990 to address similar backlogs that existed in the late 1980s. 
• Before Congress acted, the backlog reached one and one-half to three years or more, depending on nationality, a short wait compared to the up to nine-year waits today.
• While the 1990 quotas were sufficient for years, in the late 1990s, backlogs and cut-off dates emerged for professionals from certain countries due to the “per country” quotas.
• Additionally, when Congress increased the H-1B quotas in the late 1990s in response to the high-tech boom, it failed to increase also the EB green card quota.  This piecemeal approach has only expanded the permanent EB green card backlogs.  More green cards are needed in future reforms to our system.
• Congress must modernize the EB green card system to meet the workforce demands of the 21st century.