Indians face longest US green card waits as China backlog eases

The latest US Visa Bulletin for January 2026 has once again highlighted the scale of immigration backlogs faced by Indian applicants, with wait times across several familyand employment-based green card categories stretching from over a decade to nearly 25 years, making India one of the most affected countries under the current US immigration system.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

India continues to rank among the four most oversubscribed countries for US immigrant visas, along with China, Mexico and the Philippines. However, a closer reading of the data shows that Indian applicants, particularly skilled professionals, face significantly longer delays than their Chinese counterparts, even though both countries are subject to the same statutory per-country limits.

Under US law, no single country can receive more than seven per cent of the total annual allotment of family-sponsored and employment-based immigrant visas, regardless of population size or application volume. This cap, embedded in the Immigration and Nationality Act decades ago, has resulted in long queues for countries with sustained high demand, such as India.