The traditional path to a US passport is no longer as straightforward as it once appeared. A decade ago, many skilled workers could reasonably expect that an H-1B visa would eventually lead to a green card and, later, citizenship. Today, immigration lawyers and policy experts say the biggest challenge is not entering the US workforce but navigating the long and uncertain journey from temporary status to permanent residency. While recent reforms have made the H-1B lottery more orderly, long employment-based green card backlogs, country-based caps and evolving immigration policies have introduced uncertainty into the transition from temporary status to permanent residency.
The June 2026 Visa Bulletin highlights the extent of the backlog. For Indian applicants, the employment-based second preference (EB-2) category was processing cases with a final action date of September 1, 2013, while the employment-based third preference (EB-3) category was processing cases with a final action date of December 15, 2013, according to the US Department of State.
