Secur­ing a green card can feel over­whelm­ing for peo­ple in Sil­i­con Val­ley who were born in India and Chi­na. But with the right help and guid­ance from a skilled immi­gra­tion attor­ney, the process can be sim­pler, smoother and more suc­cess­ful.

Lim­its writ­ten into exist­ing immi­gra­tion laws on both the num­ber of green cards issued each year, as well as the num­ber of green cards avail­able based on coun­try of ori­gin, leave some wait­ing half a cen­tu­ry or more for a green card, with peo­ple from India and Chi­na fac­ing the longest wait times for employ­ment-based green cards.

In this fis­cal year, which end­ed on Octo­ber 31, 226,000 fam­i­ly-spon­sored green cards and 141,918 employ­ment-based green cards were avail­able. And the per-coun­try cap, which is the max­i­mum num­ber of green cards avail­able to indi­vid­u­als born in a par­tic­u­lar coun­try, was 25,754. 

Although these U.S. laws pose an extra chal­lenge for peo­ple born in coun­tries with the high­est demand for green cards, if you were born in India or Chi­na, there are some things you can do to mit­i­gate this wait.

Differentiate yourself

The EB‑1 green card is con­sid­ered the “first pref­er­ence” for those who’ll receive offers for employ­ment-based green cards. It offers three unique and accel­er­at­ed sub-paths: 

• EB-1A green card for indi­vid­u­als of extra­or­di­nary abil­i­ty 
• EB-1B green card for out­stand­ing researchers and pro­fes­sors
• EB-1C green card for multi­na­tion­al man­agers and exec­u­tives

The EB-1A green card for extra­or­di­nary abil­i­ty does not require an employ­er spon­sor or even a job offer, which means it’s one of the few self-peti­tion green cards. To demon­strate eli­gi­bil­i­ty, you must be able to show you have extra­or­di­nary abil­i­ty in the sci­ences, arts, edu­ca­tion, busi­ness, or ath­let­ics and that you and your work have received nation­al or inter­na­tion­al acclaim. 

Indi­vid­u­als who apply for the EB-1A do not need to obtain labor cer­ti­fi­ca­tion (as required of employ­ers). That means the process is sim­pler and can be much faster than typ­i­cal employ­ment-based green cards. Also, an indi­vid­ual appli­cant may have more flex­i­bil­i­ty to change jobs than if an employ­er applied on their behalf.

The EB-1B green card for out­stand­ing researchers and pro­fes­sors requires an employ­er to spon­sor you. Can­di­dates for the EB-1B green card must demon­strate great achieve­ments in their aca­d­e­m­ic field. 

And final­ly, the EB-1C green card for multi­na­tion­al man­agers and exec­u­tives enables an employ­er to bring an exec­u­tive or man­ag­er who has been work­ing abroad over to the U.S. to live and work. The EB-1C can­di­date must have worked out­side the U.S. for the employ­er for at least one year.

This Cato Insti­tute analy­sis esti­mates indi­vid­u­als born in Chi­na and India face wait­ing eight and nine years, respec­tive­ly, for an EB‑1 green card. Despite the small and grow­ing back­log for EB‑1 green cards for indi­vid­u­als born in Chi­na and India, it still remains one of the quick­er options.

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