USCIS Green Card Application Backlog
Not all visa applications get processed right away. In 2020, the Department of State was still processing some applications from 1996. This happens because of the limits immigration law sets on immigration from certain countries or visa categories. As of November 1, 2019, there were 3.6 million pending applications. Most of the backlog (3.5 million) comes from family-sponsored visa applications; another 126,000 come from employer-sponsored applications.
The Department of State only processes visa applications that immigrants file from outside the United States. Applications filed in the U.S. go to USCIS, which only publishes backlog stats for employment-based visa applications. According to USCIS, 395,000 employment-based petitions were waiting for a priority date as of May 2018.
Similarly, the Department of State only publishes backlog stats for visa applications filed outside the United States, and USCIS only publishes “backlog” stats for employment-based visa applications. USCIS doesn’t include family-based visa applications and other visa applications filed within the U.S. in either of these datasets. As a result, the total size of the visa application backlog is likely much higher than the stats let on.
The Migration Policy Institute explains that USCIS can backlog an application when there aren’t enough available visas to be issued, even if USCIS has already decided to approve the application. While USCIS doesn’t report an official “backlog” of family green card applications, it does report how many are pending at the end of each quarter. From this data, we know that 1,858,688 Family Green Card applications were pending with USCIS at the end of March 2020.
Credit: Migration Policy Organization