President Biden's Immigration Bill May Add 375,000 Green Cards Annually

If U.S. President Joe Biden's proposed immigration bill is approved, it will lead to a 35% annual increase in green card numbers, according to Boundless, a Seattle, Washington-based immigration firm. Boundless estimates that the number of immigrants obtaining lawful P.R. or a green card would rise by nearly 375,500 each year. If the U.S. Citizenship Act were enacted.

Indians would be the biggest beneficiaries of this increase. Indian citizens face the most extended wait times for employment-based GCs on account of country caps. The green card backlog for employment-based immigrants in 2020 crossed 1.2 million applicants, the highest ever. Indians comprise about 68% of this, according to data from USCIS.

"Just because the bill raises a visa cap does not necessarily mean that all of those green cards will be used in a given year," said Doug Rand, Boundless co-founder, and immigration policy expert. He also pointed out that countries like Australia and Canada offer P.R. to more than twice as many immigrants as the U.S. on a population-adjusted basis.