US: Indian professionals hold rally to end green card backlog
Hundreds of Indian professionals held peaceful rallies across the US, demanding an end to the massive green card backlog by eliminating arbitrary per-country limit regulations. Indian-Americans, who are highly skilled and come to the US on H-1B work visas, are the worst sufferers of the current immigration system which imposes a 7% per-country quota on allotment of green cards or permanent legal residency.
Indian immigrants needs to wait 70 years for green card
As per the existing system, the current wait-period for skilled Indian immigrants for the green card can be as long as 70 years. The rallies, urging lawmakers to support to end the per-country limit on legal permanent residency were held over the weekend in Arkansas, Kentucky, and Oregon. Recently an organization named GCReforms has been created by Indian-Americans to create awareness on this topic.
American public, lawmakers asking for reform too
Seattle-based GCReforms said, "As awareness builds on this topic among the American public and lawmakers, they are joining the chorus asking for reform to address the discriminatory green card backlogs impacting employment-based green card applicants from India." "The attendees spoke in one voice...the message was clear it is unfair to discriminate against applicants from one country due to arbitrary per-country limit regulations," it added.
GCreforms expects to continue raising awareness
These limits were put in place when Lyndon Johnson was the President of America, and before even the first handheld calculator was invented, they do not work in this era, a media release stated. GCreforms expects to continue raising awareness in several other states in the coming weeks and has been steadily gaining support from politicians, chieftains of business, and the American public.
Green card backlog impacting 300,000 high-skilled immigrants
"It is high time Congress, Senate and White House addresses the green card backlog impacting 300,000 high-skilled immigrants who have made significant contributions to the US economy," GCReforms said. Many Americans joined "Break the Backlog Series" at Arkansas by GCReforms, "Green Card Backlog Round Table" discussions in Bentonville, Arkansas to know more about the employment-based green card wait times.
Over 300 people gathered to support Indian high-skilled immigrants
Over 300 people gathered to show support for Indian high-skilled immigrants who are stuck in the green card backlog during a campaign "Break the Backlog" event series on Saturday at Capitol building in Frankfort, Kentucky by GCReforms. This is the most important issue for the Indian diaspora in the US, as it impacts many physicians, engineers, teachers, nurses, and medical professionals, said GC Reforms.
