US Green Card backlog: Why Indian EB-3 applicants are still stuck in 2014

New Delhi: For thousands of Indians working in the US, getting a green card can feel like waiting in a queue that barely moves. The latest US Visa Bulletin, accessed via PERM Tracker, shows just how long that wait remains, with the employment-based EB-3 category for India still at a January 1, 2014 final action date.

The EB-3 category covers certain skilled workers and professionals, and includes some employer-sponsored healthcare workers such as nurses, depending on their individual immigration cases.

In simple terms, the date in the Visa Bulletin acts like a queue number. An applicant's priority date is the date that determines their place in that queue. For October 2026, Indian EB-3 applicants generally need a priority date earlier than January 1, 2014, for a visa number to be available for final action, provided they meet all other requirements.

That leaves a large number of Indian workers who have been waiting for years still short of permanent residency.

Why is there such a long wait?

The US has a limited number of employment-based immigrant visas available each year. India has a particularly large pool of applicants seeking these visas, creating a backlog that is significantly longer than that faced by applicants from many other countries.

The contrast is stark in the October 2026 Visa Bulletin. While the EB-3 final action date for India is January 1, 2014, the corresponding date for applicants from most other countries is May 15, 2024.

China's cutoff is January 8, 2022, while the Philippines is at August 15, 2023.

In other words, an Indian applicant can be waiting on a priority date from 2014 while an applicant from another country in the same broad employment category may have a priority date from 2024.

What does the January 15, 2015 date mean?

There is another date in the bulletin that can be confusing for applicants. For Indian EB-3 applicants, the Dates for Filing cutoff in October is January 15, 2015.

This does not mean that everyone with a 2015 priority date can immediately receive a green card.

The US immigration system uses two separate stages. The Dates for Filing chart can allow eligible applicants to move ahead with filing their applications when that chart is authorised for use, while the Final Action Date determines when an immigrant visa can actually be issued or the green card process can reach final approval.

So an Indian worker with a 2015 priority date may be able to take certain filing steps, but still has to wait for the final action date to reach their priority date.

What does the backlog mean for Indians in real life?

The delay is more than a number on a government website.

Many Indian professionals who are already living and working in the US can spend years in temporary immigration status while waiting for permanent residency.

For some, that means continuing to depend on employment-based visas and dealing with the uncertainty that comes with a long-running immigration process. Career decisions can also become more complicated, particularly for workers who have not yet reached the stage where they have the protections available to certain applicants with pending adjustment-of-status applications.

The consequences can extend to families as well. Spouses and children can remain tied to the principal applicant's immigration situation, while major decisions involving careers, education, home purchases and long-term settlement can be difficult to make when permanent residency remains uncertain.

For Indian nurses and other healthcare professionals whose cases fall under EB-3, the wait can be particularly frustrating: they may have already spent years working in the US healthcare system while still waiting for the green card process to reach its final stage.

The queue does not always move forward

Another reason the backlog is difficult to predict is that the Visa Bulletin does not simply move forward month after month.

The cutoff can advance, remain unchanged or move backwards — a process known as retrogression.

Indian EB-3 applicants saw a dramatic example of this in July 2023, when the US State Department moved India's final action date back to January 1, 2009, citing high demand and the expected exhaustion of available visa numbers.

The setback showed that even applicants who have already waited for years cannot assume that the next movement will necessarily bring them closer to a green card.

How much has the Indian EB-3 queue moved?

Historical data compiled by PERM Tracker shows that since October 2014, the Indian EB-3 final action cutoff has advanced by the equivalent of about 122 months of priority-date time across 144 monthly Visa Bulletins. But that progress has not been smooth.

The tracker records six instances during that period when the cutoff either moved backwards or became unavailable, with the latest such setback occurring in July 2023.

The numbers therefore tell two stories at once: the Indian EB-3 queue has made substantial progress over the long term, but applicants have also had to deal with periods of stagnation and sharp reversals.

For an Indian worker waiting for a US green card, that means the question is not simply how far the date has moved, but also how reliably it will continue to move.