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At the beginning of AugustAmazon’s SVP of Human Resources, Beth Galetti, wrote in a blog post that the US Department of Homeland Security is urging the US Department of Homeland Security to speed up the process of employment-based green cards.
The appeal, of course, was self-serving — Amazon topped the list with 1,500 applications from companies applying for green cards in 2019, according to data from the US Department of Labor. But the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) – the agency responsible for issuing green cards – has drawn attention for failing to adjudicate tens of thousands of applications before the September 30 deadline.
Green cards are highly desirable. Such as temporary work visas (eg, H-1Bs) allow workers to freely change jobs without losing their immigration status. In response to demand (and political pressure), Congress allocated 281,000 employment-based green cards in 2022, up from 262,000 in 2021. (The usual cap is 140,000.) But the pandemic — and restrictive rules under the Trump administration — have imposed more. Solving in a largely manual, paper-driven process.
American embassies and consulates are temporarily closed and long lines are formed to collect fingerprints and photographs. State-by-state fees haven’t helped either — according to the Cato Institute, nearly 875,000 approved petitions for green cards by 2021 have been put on a waiting list because of the cap.
USCIS has taken steps to speed up the adjudication process this year, he told Bloomberg Law in July, taking a “risk-based approach” to prioritizing worker resources for processing green cards and waiving interview requirements. But it is not clear whether this will be enough to prevent tens of thousands of green cards from being used. As of July 31, USCIS reported adjudicating nearly 210,000 applications, leaving more than 70,000 pending.
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