SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Between the year 2000 and 2014, the U.S. issued 926,257 green cards to Indian nationals, a recent report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said. For contrast, in the previous 160 years, only 674,221 Indians had been awarded lawful permanent residence.
Overall, more than 1.6 million Indians have migrated to the U.S. and have been awarded permanent residence in the last 172 years — a fractional figure, representing just 2.1 percent of the total immigration (80.5 million) to the U.S. during the same time span.
The spike in green cards being issued to Indian nationals began in the aftermath of the historic Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which paved the way for large-scale Asian immigration. Between 1970 and 1979, the first full decade the enacted legislation was active, 148,018 people from India were awarded green cards. In the previous decade, only 18,638 Indians had been awarded green cards.
In the first decade of the 2000s, a record number of green cards — 590,464 — have been issued to applicants from India. During the same decade, 33.7 percent of the total green cards issued were given to Asians. Indians specifically represented 17 percent of the total distribution to those in Asian nations. Overall, more than 10 million green cards were issued worldwide.
For 2016, more than 150,000 green cards have been approved through March, with more than 12,000 being denied. Regardless, the amount of green card applications are expected to increase by more than 400,000. There are primarily three categories that accounted for a majority of the immigration: family-based, employment-based and humanitarian-based.
Family-based applications are those requests made by individuals who are supported by a family relationship with a U.S. citizen, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website. Employment-based requests are those that are supported by employment, or for an entrepreneur who aspires to immigrate to the US to establish business. Humanitarian-based applications are those that are supported by humanitarian considerations.
