Republican Senator Criticizes Green Card Cap for Indians

Republican Senator Roger Marshall advocated for more Indians in the US at a time when several of his party colleagues want to pause the entry of Indians on the H-1B visa permanently. Marshall said he does not support the per-country cap on Green Cards, which makes the wait for Green Cards for Indians 70 years long in some cases. As the senator was addressing Indian-Americans, he showed his support for the community and said, "We are telling the world’s hardest-working immigrants that the line is 70 years long. Not because of what you did but because too many of you came from the same place."

The wait for a Green Card, permanent residency in the US, is long for Indians as there is a yearly cap on how many people can get the Green Card. No country can receive more than 7 percent of the family-sponsored and employment-based Green Cards issued each year. As applications from India over the year outnumbered the allotted number, now the backlog is around a decade. Depending on their categories, Indians who received a Green Card this year (2026) must have applied for it around 2013-14.

Speaking at a Capitol Hill event, organized by the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies, Marshall said the per-country Green Card cap is one of the great injustices of the US and he will continue to raise the issue legally and sensibly. "Both countries win when this relationship works. American farmers win, Indian consumers win and the strategic balance of 21st century tilts towards democracy and away from authoritarianism," Marshall said as he heaped praises on India. Indian Americans are 1.5% of the American population but they pay 5-6%of all the federal income taxes, Marshall said. “Every time someone in Washington questions whether legal immigration works, you're the answer,” he said. “You're not the argument, you're the answer.”

Do Indians really have to wait for 70 years for a Green Card?

There are different kinds of Green Cards and the waiting time for each is different from the others. But the 70-year wait is a well-known claim based on projections for a person who enters the queue today, as the per-country cap is neither being removed nor being increased while the application numbers are growing each year. But many people leave the queue to return to India, freeing up space; some change their category and this reshuffling keeps on changing the waiting time.