Indian professionals seeking US employment-based green cards could face waits of up to 179 years, according to an NFAP analysis. Nearly one million Indians were in the backlog by December 2025. Estimated waits are 179 years for EB-2, 38 years for EB-3 and 4-5 years for EB-1. The delays come amid Trump’s broader immigration crackdown.

Indian professionals seeking an employment-based green card in the US could face an estimated wait of as long as 179 years, highlighting the severity of the country’s employment visa backlog. Chinese applicants, meanwhile, could face delays of up to 25 years, according to a report from the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), based on data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The NFAP study looked at pending applications across the EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3 employment-based green card categories. It found that Indian applicants face particularly severe delays due to country-specific visa caps, a large pool of pending applications and continued demand in the US for highly skilled professionals, particularly scientists and engineers.

Nearly 1 million Indians stuck in employment visa backlog

Under US immigration rules, roughly 140,000 employment-based green cards can be issued annually. The law also generally restricts any single country from receiving more than 7% of those visas in a fiscal year. This system has contributed to a massive backlog for Indian applicants, with nearly one million Indians estimated to have been waiting for employment-based immigration as of December 2025.