[OC] Wait times for family-sponsored visas to the U.S.
September 19, 2024
[OC] Wait times for family-sponsored visas to the U.S.
Posted by nytopinion
24 comments
“I’d support them if they followed the law and immigrated legally.”
To put 224 years into perspective, the election 224 years ago was when Thomas Jefferson got in
* Sources: U.S. State Department, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services | Note: Data was originally compiled in “[Why Legal Immigration Is Nearly Impossible](https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/why-legal-immigration-nearly-impossible)” by David Bier for the Cato Institute. “All other countries” represents the average. * Tools used: Observable Plot and Illustrator
In this guest essay, Jorge Loweree, the managing director of programs and strategy at the American Immigration Council, explains how difficult and rare it is to legally immigrate to the United States:
“There is *no* line to get into for a vast majority of people who wish to come to the United States,” writes Jorge. “If the government is serious about securing the border, we have to make it easier for people to come through legal channels,” he adds. “For people seeking to immigrate to America to reunite with U.S.-citizen family members already here, the wait times are punishing because the backlogs are ludicrous. Most U.S. citizens petitioning to reunite with adult children can expect a minimum wait of nine years. But for some nationalities, the wait is especially untenable: If someone applied this year to sponsor a sibling from Mexico, they’d be waiting in a line for easily 40 to 50 years.”
so this is for people trying to immigrate who already have families in the US? What about wait times for those who don’t have family in the US?
I know someone who sponsored their parents’ immigration from Mexico, it took several years, but nothing like this. Is this a recent increase or something?
If you don’t artificially inflate the perceived value of being an American citizen people will start demanding things like vacation and free healthcare and we can’t have that.
This chart is so nice and clean.
[deleted]
This is a totally fine and well done display of data, but it is illuminating in revealing the broken condition of our current immigration system, so it is sadly far from ‘beautiful’.
And it’s so long because of people sneaking in and/or lying about their refugee status.
So people have some general understanding here.
Of total green cards offered by the U.S, no country can exceed 7% of the total. This greatly affects countries such as China, India, and Mexico.
Immediate relatives are unaffected by this cap. This includes: unmarried children under 21, parents, or spouse.
For immediate relatives, you’re very often looking at less than 5 years for a green card with some sort of visa allowing them to be here and possibly work here within less than a year.
Should add an ‘illegal entry’ wait time for comparison.
It’s such a disservice to valued and validated immigrants that the rulebreakers gain entry from day 1 to services intended for those who abided the law.
Now compare this to other countries
The US legal immigration is a pay-to-play system designed to enrich immigration lawyers and give job security to immigration bureaucrats.
If you have the cash you can get a work or investor visa, or maybe even a “highly qualified” one if you have enough cash (Melania). Its all a scam. For a work green card your company has to advertise your position nationally for months and intentionally not find any qualified applicants, then after around $10k of bullshit and years of waiting you can get a green card.
And if you don’t want to pay, then how about wait for…..224 years!!
Google/Statista says that the US issues ~1 million green cards per year.
If your only qualification is “I’m an adult, and my parents or siblings are naturalized citizens”, I don’t think that *should* be a free pass to get a visa.
I don’t look at this particular data set and see a problem. There are plenty of other issues with the US immigration process, but “we don’t give enough visas to people just because they have family that went through a rigorous process” doesn’t seem to be one of them.
If anything, this data appears to disprove the theory that “chain migration” of a single family member bringing over hordes of unskilled relatives is a problem. (Not to mention all the other requirements for a family reunification visa).
Isn’t any wait beyond ~30 years is just a denial of the visa?
I agree that the times are excessive, however, this information is extremely inaccurate. I hate when people try to make a point by lying or misleading people. It only ruins your cause.
Now they can fall behind and not move ahead one month at a time, but I know MANY people who have their applications in the system and these charts are accurate.
Spouses, dependent children, and parents of US citizens tend to have shorter waiting times than other family members. Between October 2022 and September 2023, the median wait time for spouses, dependent children, and parents was 11.8 months nationally, while petitions for fiancé(e)s had a median wait of 13.9 months.
Processing times vary by regional office depending on application volumes, workload allocations, staffing, and other factors. There is no specific legal timeframe for the US to respond to immigration visa applicants.
Median processing times for international adoption immigration cases have also increased: approximately 49.2 months as of 2023.
For family categories such as “Unmarried Sons and Daughters of US Citizens” and “Spouses and Children of Permanent Residents,” the wait times can be even longer, from several years to more than a decade.
As of November 1, 2022, the State Department reported 4.08 million people waiting for their visa applications to be processed. This is the overall total of both family-sponsored and employment-based applications and includes both the primary applicants and their eligible dependents, including spouses and children.
Please do one for employment based visas! They are merit based, must be better. No?
and they wonder why people go with the asylum route
Show me the guy that waited 224 years.
Reminds me of this scene [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS9u6K9T3vcespecially](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS9u6K9T3vcespecially) when Richard Pryor calculates his age when he will get out. Man, that’s hilarious
Corrected link – Edit
And why should people be able to bring their entire extended family to America? Immigration should be based solely on merit and not being the sibling of someone else.
24 comments
“I’d support them if they followed the law and immigrated legally.”
To put 224 years into perspective, the election 224 years ago was when Thomas Jefferson got in
* Sources: U.S. State Department, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services | Note: Data was originally compiled in “[Why Legal Immigration Is Nearly Impossible](https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/why-legal-immigration-nearly-impossible)” by David Bier for the Cato Institute. “All other countries” represents the average.
* Tools used: Observable Plot and Illustrator
In this guest essay, Jorge Loweree, the managing director of programs and strategy at the American Immigration Council, explains how difficult and rare it is to legally immigrate to the United States:
“There is *no* line to get into for a vast majority of people who wish to come to the United States,” writes Jorge. “If the government is serious about securing the border, we have to make it easier for people to come through legal channels,” he adds. “For people seeking to immigrate to America to reunite with U.S.-citizen family members already here, the wait times are punishing because the backlogs are ludicrous. Most U.S. citizens petitioning to reunite with adult children can expect a minimum wait of nine years. But for some nationalities, the wait is especially untenable: If someone applied this year to sponsor a sibling from Mexico, they’d be waiting in a line for easily 40 to 50 years.”
Read the rest of the essay [here, for free](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/14/opinion/immigration-us-legal.html?unlocked_article_code=1.L04.4qYD.sjmiahZopTYv&smid=re-nytopinion), without a subscription to The New York Times.
so this is for people trying to immigrate who already have families in the US? What about wait times for those who don’t have family in the US?
I know someone who sponsored their parents’ immigration from Mexico, it took several years, but nothing like this. Is this a recent increase or something?
If you don’t artificially inflate the perceived value of being an American citizen people will start demanding things like vacation and free healthcare and we can’t have that.
This chart is so nice and clean.
[deleted]
This is a totally fine and well done display of data, but it is illuminating in revealing the broken condition of our current immigration system, so it is sadly far from ‘beautiful’.
And it’s so long because of people sneaking in and/or lying about their refugee status.
So people have some general understanding here.
Of total green cards offered by the U.S, no country can exceed 7% of the total. This greatly affects countries such as China, India, and Mexico.
Immediate relatives are unaffected by this cap. This includes: unmarried children under 21, parents, or spouse.
For immediate relatives, you’re very often looking at less than 5 years for a green card with some sort of visa allowing them to be here and possibly work here within less than a year.
Should add an ‘illegal entry’ wait time for comparison.
It’s such a disservice to valued and validated immigrants that the rulebreakers gain entry from day 1 to services intended for those who abided the law.
Now compare this to other countries
The US legal immigration is a pay-to-play system designed to enrich immigration lawyers and give job security to immigration bureaucrats.
If you have the cash you can get a work or investor visa, or maybe even a “highly qualified” one if you have enough cash (Melania). Its all a scam. For a work green card your company has to advertise your position nationally for months and intentionally not find any qualified applicants, then after around $10k of bullshit and years of waiting you can get a green card.
And if you don’t want to pay, then how about wait for…..224 years!!
Google/Statista says that the US issues ~1 million green cards per year.
If your only qualification is “I’m an adult, and my parents or siblings are naturalized citizens”, I don’t think that *should* be a free pass to get a visa.
I don’t look at this particular data set and see a problem. There are plenty of other issues with the US immigration process, but “we don’t give enough visas to people just because they have family that went through a rigorous process” doesn’t seem to be one of them.
If anything, this data appears to disprove the theory that “chain migration” of a single family member bringing over hordes of unskilled relatives is a problem. (Not to mention all the other requirements for a family reunification visa).
Isn’t any wait beyond ~30 years is just a denial of the visa?
I agree that the times are excessive, however, this information is extremely inaccurate. I hate when people try to make a point by lying or misleading people. It only ruins your cause.
There is something called the [Visa Bulletin](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2024/visa-bulletin-for-september-2024.html) that shows the current Month/Year applications they are working on.
Now they can fall behind and not move ahead one month at a time, but I know MANY people who have their applications in the system and these charts are accurate.
Spouses, dependent children, and parents of US citizens tend to have shorter waiting times than other family members. Between October 2022 and September 2023, the median wait time for spouses, dependent children, and parents was 11.8 months nationally, while petitions for fiancé(e)s had a median wait of 13.9 months.
Processing times vary by regional office depending on application volumes, workload allocations, staffing, and other factors. There is no specific legal timeframe for the US to respond to immigration visa applicants.
Median processing times for international adoption immigration cases have also increased: approximately 49.2 months as of 2023.
For family categories such as “Unmarried Sons and Daughters of US Citizens” and “Spouses and Children of Permanent Residents,” the wait times can be even longer, from several years to more than a decade.
As of November 1, 2022, the State Department reported 4.08 million people waiting for their visa applications to be processed. This is the overall total of both family-sponsored and employment-based applications and includes both the primary applicants and their eligible dependents, including spouses and children.
Please do one for employment based visas! They are merit based, must be better. No?
and they wonder why people go with the asylum route
Show me the guy that waited 224 years.
Reminds me of this scene [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS9u6K9T3vcespecially](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS9u6K9T3vcespecially) when Richard Pryor calculates his age when he will get out. Man, that’s hilarious
Corrected link – Edit
And why should people be able to bring their entire extended family to America? Immigration should be based solely on merit and not being the sibling of someone else.
I doubt anyone cares, but this isn’t accurate.
Source–a very tired immigration attorney.