The Hill News

As a legal immigrant trapped in a Green Card backlog that may affect more than 500,000 immigrants and American businesses, I have seen firsthand the need for Congress to clear this backlog to maintain our nation’s economic competitiveness.

Every year, only 140,000 Green Cards are available for highly-skilled immigrant employees sponsored by a U.S. employer. Despite the critical role these legal immigrants play with respect to innovation, entrepreneurship and domestic job creation, the employment-based Green Card system represents only 16 percent of all Green Cards issued every fiscal year. Within this annual cap exists a seven percent country limit, which provides the same number of Green Cards to immigrants from India, one of the world’s most populous countries, as Iceland, one of the world’s smallest nations.

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