The new Green Card rule announced by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services has led to major confusion and anxiety among Green Card applicants, as the new rule says one may not be allowed to stay in the US before they receive their permanent residence. They have to go back to their own country and file the application from a consulate there. The USCIS said people who come to the US temporarily have so far been allowed to change their status in the US which should not be the case as their intention does not match: they come temporarily but want to become permanent residents. Hence, they should go back to their country and follow the due process from there, with the intention of becoming a permanent citizen.
Experts said this is not a change of law but the minor tweak can have a huge impact. Earlier, the Donald Trump administration imposed a travel ban, visa ban on several countries but unlike the previous immigration bans, this can affect any country. But the most-affected countries are those that get the maximum Green Cards.
List of top 10 countries that obtain the maximum Green Cards
According to a 2023 record of the Department of Homeland Security, the top 10 countries that get the highest number of Green Cards are:
Mexico: 180,530
Cuba: 81,600
India: 78,070
Dominican Republic: 68,870
China: 59,260
Philippines: 49,200
Vietnam: 36,000
Afghanistan: 30,300
Brazil: 28,880
El Salvador: 26,210
There are several types of Green Cards and India dominates the employment-based Green Cards, while Mexico remains the largest overall source of family-based Green Cards. Cuba and Afghanistan rose sharply in the chart because of the humanitarian and asylum-related pathways.
Mexico, India, the Philippines, and China all have long backlogs for their respective Green Cards which means applicants have to wait for decades to get their Green Cards. The new rule, if and when implemented, will differ from case to case, according to experts.
