The United States continues to attract high-skilled workers, yet the path to permanent residence is increasingly fraught with uncertainty due to backlogs and visa shortages.
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 18 — The United States remains dependent on high-skilled workers from across the globe to maintain its competitive edge in vital sectors such as technology, engineering, and health care. However, new data reveals significant pressures within the employment-based immigration system, leading to greater uncertainty and obstacles for workers seeking permanent residency.
Two recent reports from the American Immigration Council analyze a decade’s worth of data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) regarding nonimmigrant and immigrant petitions for high-skilled workers. The findings indicate that while demand for high-skilled labor remains robust, with high approval rates for several nonimmigrant visa categories, including the H-1B visa, the system is under increasing strain.
The reports highlight that USCIS is struggling to keep up with the rising demand for temporary workers, resulting in escalating backlogs. For those pursuing employment-based green cards, the situation is even more precarious, characterized by record backlogs, limited visa availability, extended waiting periods, and heightened scrutiny in certain categories.
“The United States continues to recruit and rely on high-skilled workers from around the world, but for many of those workers, building a permanent future here means navigating years of uncertainty,” said Nan Wu, director of research at the American Immigration Council. “If the United States wants to compete for the world’s best talent, it needs an immigration system that allows employers and workers to plan for the long term with greater confidence.”
Despite USCIS approving a substantial number of petitions for temporary high-skilled workers, the agency is increasingly showing signs of strain and is failing to keep pace with demand. The challenges become even more pronounced for workers seeking permanent residency. Processing times for employment-based green cards are lagging, backlogs are sharply increasing, and many workers find themselves waiting years to complete the process, even after their immigrant petitions have been approved. In certain high-skilled green card categories, denial rates have also surged.
“These findings show a system in which employers and workers have to spend years navigating a backlogged system. That kind of uncertainty makes it harder for workers to build their lives here and for employers to retain the talent they need,” said Steve Hubbard, senior data scientist at the Council.
Key findings from the reports include:
Temporary high-skilled worker petitions continue to enjoy high approval rates, yet processing challenges are mounting. Nearly 98 percent of H-1B petitions were approved in fiscal year 2025, while approval rates for L-1 and O visa categories remained above 90 percent. However, USCIS struggled to manage the influx of more than 456,000 petitions for the H-1B category in fiscal year 2025 alone, contributing to a growing backlog.
Workers seeking employment-based green cards face a daunting path. The backlog of employment-based green card petitions has more than quadrupled over the past decade, reaching a record 180,439 pending cases by the end of fiscal year 2025. At the current processing pace, it would take USCIS over nine months just to clear this backlog. Many applicants are resorting to paying additional fees for expedited processing, generating an estimated $300 million in fees for USCIS in fiscal year 2025.
Denial rates have increased in key employment-based categories. At one point in fiscal year 2025, USCIS was denying approximately one in six employment-based immigrant petitions. In two categories designed for particularly accomplished workers, the EB-1A and the EB-2 National Interest Waiver (NIW), denial rates nearly doubled during the same fiscal year.
Visa availability remains a significant bottleneck. Once USCIS approves a petition for an employment-based green card, the process does not conclude there. Employment-based green cards are subject to legal caps, meaning workers can spend years waiting for a visa number to become available, even after their applications have been approved. By the end of fiscal year 2025, over 642,000 approved workers were still in limbo, awaiting a visa number.
“The U.S. government is essentially telling high-skilled workers that we want your talent to build companies, conduct research, treat patients, and grow the U.S. economy, but we can’t assure you that you’ll be able to build a future here. That is not a serious approach for competing for global talent,” Wu stated. “If we want to attract and retain these high-skilled workers, we need an immigration system that provides them with more long-term certainty.”
For more detailed insights, the reports can be accessed through the American Immigration Council.
According to American Immigration Council.