Tech giants are worried their employees will miss out on thousands of potential green cards this year as the U.S. continues to struggle with an immigration backlog.
Why it matters: In a tight labor market, industry leaders say they can't afford to lose talented high-skilled workers frustrated with long delays in granting permanent legal status.
What's happening: There are about 280,000 employment-based green cards available this year, but immigration officials are on track to waste about 100,000 of them, based on processing times in the first quarter, Cato Institute research fellow David Bier told Axios.
Between the lines: The issue disproportionately affects people from India because of the caps on the number of green cards that can be granted per country.
Zoom out: The pandemic contributed to processing delays, as did a sharp increase in the number of employment-based visas available.
What they're saying: When employees are going through this process, the fear, uncertainty, anxiety and doubt created by the backlog in processing is just brutal," Microsoft associate general counsel Jack Chen told Axios.
Immigration officials have processed fewer than half of Google's employee applications since October 2020, Kent Walker, president, global affairs & chief legal officer for Google told Axios.
The other side: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services used more of the visas in the first half of this fiscal year than the agency did for the same time period last year.
The intrigue: Wide-ranging legislation meant to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing could include provisions to help ease high-skilled immigration.
What to watch: The tech sector backs the immigration provision, although it would not fully clear the backlog.
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