How long do immigrants

Passports International Travel U. Stay Connected. Law Enforcement. Y Z All. Employment-Based Immigrant Visas. Employment First Preference E1 : Priority Worker and Persons of Extraordinary Ability There are three sub-groups within this category: Persons with extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics. Applicants in this category must have extensive documentation showing sustained national or international acclaim and recognition in their fields of expertise.

Such applicants do not have to have specific job offers, so long as they are entering the U. Outstanding professors and researchers with at least three years experience in teaching or research, who are recognized internationally. Applicants in this category must be coming to the U. Multinational managers or executives who have been employed for at least one of the three preceding years by the overseas affiliate, parent, subsidiary, or branch of the U.

There are two subgroups within this category: Professionals holding an advanced degree beyond a baccalaureate degree , or a baccalaureate degree and at least five years progressive experience in the profession. Persons with exceptional abilit y in the sciences, arts, or business. Exceptional ability means having a degree of expertise significantly above that ordinarily encountered in the sciences, arts, or business.

There are three subgroups within this category: Skilled workers are persons whose jobs require a minimum of 2 years training or work experience that are not temporary or seasonal. Professionals are members of the professions whose jobs require at least a baccalaureate degree from a U. Unskilled workers Other workers are persons capable of filling positions that require less than two years training or experience that are not temporary or seasonal. There are many subgroups within this category: Broadcasters in the U.

This classification has an annual numeric limitation of 50 visas. Iraqi and Afghan nationals who have provided faithful and valuable service while employed by or on behalf of the U. Government for more information. Fees Fees are charged for the following services: Filing of Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, Form I, or Petition for Amerasian, Widow er , or Special Immigrant, Form I this fee is charged by USCIS Processing an immigrant visa application, Form DS see Note below Medical examination and required vaccinations costs vary Other costs may include: translations; photocopying charges; fees for obtaining the documents you need for the immigrant visa application such as passport, police certificates, birth certificates, etc.

Embassy or Consulate for your visa interview. Costs vary from country to country and case to case. Required Documentation In general, the following documents are required: Passport s valid for six months beyond the intended date of entry into the United States, unless longer validity is specifically requested by the U. Please review the instructions for guidance. Preview a sample DS 6. Two 2 2x2 photographs. See the required photo format explained in Photograph Requirements.

Civil Documents for the applicant. See Documents the Applicant Must Submit for more specific information about documentation requirements, including information on which documents may need to be translated.

The consular officer may ask for more information during your visa interview. Bring your original civil documents or certified copies such as birth and marriage certificates, as well as legible photocopies of the original civil documents, and any required translations to your immigrant visa interview. Original documents and translations can then be returned to you. Financial Support — At your immigrant visa interview, you must demonstrate to the consular officer that you are not likely to become a public charge in the United States.

Completed Medical Examination Forms — These are provided by the panel physician after you have completed your medical examination and vaccinations see below. More Information. Who's Involved. Information For. FAQ's: Medical Exam. FAQ's: I FAQ's: DS Certain immediate relatives, such as parents or siblings. Your foreign spouse. Your unmarried children regardless of age. If you have been a refugee or asylee within the past two years, you can petition for certain family members to obtain refugee or asylee status.

If you or a member of your family is in the U. You may need additional documents to return to the U. You should obtain these necessary documents before your trip. Note: If you need a travel document, but left the U. Ask a real person any government-related question for free. They'll get you the answer or let you know where to find it. How to Apply for U. Citizenship How to Enter the U. Renounce or Lose Your U. Share This Page:. This failure produces wildly differing outcomes depending on what category the immigrant is in i.

Figure 3 shows the average wait times for family preference immigrants in and The average time waited for all family preference immigrants in was about 8 years and 1 month, up from about 4 years and 3 months — an 88 percent increase. While the average wait for family-sponsored immigrants nearly doubled, the waits for unmarried adult children of citizens F1 and those for married adult children of citizens F3 increased tenfold and sixfold, respectively.

In absolute terms, waits for F3 rose the most — by an additional 11 years and 5 months. Meanwhile, the waits for spouses and minor children of legal permanent residents F2A actually declined. The category for siblings of adult U. The average wait time in the employment-based categories grew more than sevenfold — from just 3 months in to 1 year and 9 months in Figure 4.

Only the EB3O category for workers without a college degree saw a decrease in the wait since The other five categories saw their wait times increase. The next-longest average category wait was in the EB5 category for investors creating at least 10 jobs who had waited an average of 1 year and 8 months in The country limits — which cap the number of green cards for any particular nationality at 7 percent of the total number — artificially inflate the longest waits, while artificially deflating the average wait.

This deflation effect happens because, once a nationality bumps up against the country limit, nationals from other countries pass them in the line.

Under this inequitable system, the longest wait can grow much longer, but the average wait only increases slightly, since 93 percent of the line may be unaffected by the limits. Ever greater numbers of applicants pile up in the line for the nationalities at the country limit, while nationals of other countries apply for green cards in roughly the same amount of time.

Paradoxically, the longest waits in the employment-based preferences can grow, even while the average wait time actually shortens. This can happen because the law allows nationalities in those categories to receive green cards above their country limits if not all the green cards in the category would otherwise be used.

If a nationality goes above the country limit in one year and then more applicants apply from other countries in the next year, the new applicants can cut into the greater numbers that the nationality with the longest wait was previously receiving.

Thus, the share of applicants with no wait time increases, while the share with the longest wait time decreases. The result is a shorter average wait time for all applicants but a much longer one for those with the longest wait. From to , for example, the longest wait in the EB5 category for investors in U.

The country limits generally affect only four nationalities: Chinese, Indians, Mexicans, and Filipinos. The waits grew the most for Indians — 4 years and 6 months since — followed by Mexicans, whose waits increased by 3 years and 2 months.

The average wait for all other nationalities increased by 2 years and 4 months since In , Indians also waited the longest: 8 years and 6 months — nearly double the average wait of 4 years and 6 months for all nationalities not at the country limits.

The category limits and country limits operate together to create even more widely variant outcomes across the entire immigration system.

Figure 6 shows all preference immigrants in categories with waits longer than the average for all categories 5 years and 8 months.

Filipino siblings of adult U. They originally entered the line for green cards in Just behind them were F3 Filipino and Mexican adult married children of U. Figure 7 shows how wait times have increased since for nationalities with the longest wait in each category in The largest increase — 20 years and 7 months — occurred for F1 Mexican unmarried adult children of U. In the employment-based categories, EB3 Indian employees of U.

The lengthy wait times cause many applicants to pile up in a backlog awaiting their chance to apply for green cards. The most recent statistics on the number of approved applicants indicate that about 4. As Table 2 shows, there is a significant mismatch between the share of available green cards in each line and the share of applicants in each line.

Table 3 shows the backlogs by nationality. Mexican applicants account for 28 percent of the backlog in the preference categories.

Indians accounted for 19 percent, and another 19 percent were born either in the Philippines, China, or Vietnam. Applicants from all other countries amount to about a third of the total. While the distribution in the family preference categories is similar, the employment-based backlogs are filled almost entirely by people born in India 78 percent or China 17 percent.

The backlog has grown significantly since While only partial data is available, the number of people waiting for immigrant visas abroad — primarily family-sponsored immigrants — has grown from 2. Based on the increases in wait times for these categories, the backlogs for these types of immigrants have also grown significantly.

Whereas it may have taken immigrants an average of 5 years and 8 months to immigrate in , the backlogs mean that immigrants who are applying for the first time right now may have to wait much longer.

The government makes no attempt to estimate these future waits. Table 4 highlights how long it would take to process everyone currently in the backlogs by nationality and category if everyone stays in the line.

As it shows, applicants in several lines face multidecade waits if they stick it out indefinitely. The waits are so long that many people waiting for green cards will die before they can even apply. Table 4 also shows how many applicants would die waiting based on the average age distribution of immigrants in and the average mortality rate by age. Altogether, about , would-be legal immigrants — 14 percent of those waiting in — will die without seeing a green card if they refuse to give up and stay in the line indefinitely.

Those near the back of the longest lines will have to find another way to receive permanent residence — for example, by marrying a U. Of course, many immigrants will give up rather than wait for a green card that may never come.

To account for attrition, Figure 8 projects how long the average preference immigrant will have waited to apply for a green card in , assuming that the linear trends from to continue. If current trends continue, the average wait will increase from 5 years and 8 months in to 7 years and 8 months in Waits for specific nationalities will grow even more disproportionate under current trends. Nationalities in about a dozen categories will have waited multiple decades for a green card in Figure 9.

This means that immigrants entering those lines in will likely not apply for their green cards until or later. For F3 Mexican and Filipino married adult children of U. The share of immigrants receiving green cards under the quotas who wait more than two decades will rise from 3 percent to 15 percent by The current trends could change, so it is worth making a more detailed assessment to explore how the wait times could change in a couple of specific categories.

The following factors all affect how long it will take to process everyone in these backlogs for any particular nationality: 1 marriages, 2 children, 3 deaths, 4 abandonment of applications, and 5 the number of green cards made available for each nationality. Getting married could increase or decrease the waits. Because the law gives spouses of immigrants the same place in line as the primary applicant, getting married to a noncitizen would increase the backlog.

On the other hand, if the spouse is a U. Children also have an equivocal effect on future wait times. The law entitles children under the age of 21 to the same place in line as their parents. This means that, in cases where the child turns 21 before the parent is able to apply for a green card, the child loses eligibility, reducing the wait times at least for the parent — for the child, the wait becomes infinite, as he or she will have lost eligibility entirely.

If children are born in the United States, they are U. On the other hand, giving birth to children outside the United States would increase the backlog because those children would be entitled to the same place in line as their parents.