Indians with a lot of skill have to wait longer for a green card.

Applicants for the EB-1 visa, which is given quickly to people with a lot of ability, are facing a big delay.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has chosen to "retrogress" by 10 years the date when visas may finally be given to Indians who have applied for an employment-based, first-preference visa. This was announced in the August visa update bulletin. Final action dates show when a certain amount of immigration visas will be available for foreigners who have a current priority date during that month.

According to the report, the number of people who want an EB-1 visa from India is higher than the number of visas that can be given out. The visa prorating rules in Section 202(e) apply to assignments for a foreign state or dependent area when the number of visas requested for that state or area is more than the cap for that country.

Up until now, people from India could get visas that were meant for other countries but weren't used. But because more people from these countries want EB-1 visas, the department can no longer give these visas to people from India. So, under INA 202(a)(5), applicants from India can no longer get EB-1 numbers, the statement said.

Since the EB-1 cap for FY 2023 has been met, the last action date for this group has been pushed back 10 years to January 2012. Because of priority date holding based on previously accepted applications in the EB-2 or EB-3 categories, the priority dates of many Indian EB-1 visa candidates are from 2012 to 2015. This shows where they are in the line for a visa.