I have a lot of friends at work that have H1B visas. They try to get green cards but the process drags out often for more than a decade. Why is it so hard for people who want to be here, and who have well paying jobs, to get green cards?
There’s a limit on number of green cards per year. Then there’s a hard limit of 7% of that per country. There’s also a priority system with Family coming first. The combination of three results in a really long wait time for Indians without family (who are citizens) in the US moving on H1B. The current priority date is 2012 if I’m not wrong. It did progress faster during the pandemic but got quickly rolled back. Remember that those who come on H1B are already capped per year.
But if you are here on an H1B you don't actually have a congressman. The US citizens you are competing against do. And this is why the system works the way it does.
You have a congressman. That is, you have representation but not suffrage rights. Congresspeople will assist with making congressional inquiries. Their political incentives are a separate matter, but even advocacy ultimately has to get to the legislature. The failures of the system aren't a result of the H1Bs v/s US Citizens dynamic. In reality, there are several different groups with their own incentives. Kind of like how failures of US healthcare isn't a patients v/s doctors dynamic.
If I have a green card I can donate to political candidates though. I don't know how many dollars is equivalent to one vote, that probably varies by candidate.
So H1Bs are also competing against green card holders with more political power than them, not just citizens.
I recall hearing that the wait time for green card approval depends on the home country of the applicant. There were a lot of applicants from India when I talked with people who were getting a green card. So the wait for an Indian applicant was much longer than, say, an applicant from Canada.
Not sure what the wait times are now, but I doubt the USA has caught up on the Indian wait list, esp. during/after the pandemic.
Note that if the country of birth is not explicity listed, such as Canada, the intending immigrant must use the column "All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed".
For example, a EB2 applicant born in Canada filing today would be backlogged because the date of filing is listed as 01JAN23.
