Family unity and reunification have long been foundational principles of our nation’s immigration system. While U.S. immigration policy incorporated family relationships as a basis for admission into the U.S. as early as the 1920s, it was in 1952 that the current approach was enacted with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Under these laws, both U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (LPRs) over the age of 21 have the ability to petition for certain family members to receive immigrant visas. These visas grant an individual LPR status, also known as a “green card”, which is a pathway to U.S. citizenship.

Family members eligible for such visas are separated into two groups: immediate relatives (spouse, minor child, or parent of a U.S. citizen) and the family preference categories (unmarried sons and daughters 21 years or older of U.S. citizens (F1); spouses and children unmarried and under 21 years of age of LPRs (F2A); unmarried sons and daughters 21 years or older of LPRs (F2B); married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens (F3); and brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens (F4)).

To begin the process of family-based immigration, a U.S. citizen or LPR in the United States must file the necessary petition on behalf of his or her relative. In order to be eligible, the family member must meet several general requirements and not be subject to any grounds of inadmissibility, and an immigrant visa must be available at the time of filing. The process varies depending on whether the relative is located outside or inside of the United States at the time the request is filed.

What is the problem?

The wellbeing of families directly impacts the welfare of society, and family unity is a cornerstone of Catholic social teaching. Yet, the current process for reuniting family members often forces them to endure unreasonable periods of separation while they wait for a visa to become available.

The number of immigrant visas for immediate family members of U.S. citizens is unlimited and thus always available. However, for family members in any of the family preference categories, visas are statutorily limited each year. Generally, family-sponsored preference visas are limited to 226,000 visas per year, with a numerical cap for each preference category. Each year, the number of family-based petitions exceeds this quota and, as a result, a queue has accumulated for family members who qualify but must wait for a visa to become available. Every month, the Department of State issues a Visa Bulletin, which indicates the cut-off filing date of the petitions currently being processed.

In addition to the caps on each category preference, the law also imposes a limit on the number of immigrants from any given country that can receive a green card in a given year. Per the Immigration Act of 1990, each country is allotted up to 7% of the available green cards (to be split between family-based and employment-based immigrants). Thus, every country has a maximum of 44,100 family-based immigrants each year. As such, the wait time for visa availability depends on a family members’ preference category, their priority date, and their nationality. The primary result of these caps on green cards has been an extreme backlog in processing family-based petitions. Immigrants subject to these caps made up about 86% of the family-based backlog in 2022. That same year, there were a reported 8.3 million immigrants at various stages of the family-sponsored process; 7.1 million immigrants were subject to the caps. For some family members, it could be decades before they are able to attain a visa and join their family in the United States. Wait times for a visa can range anywhere from 6 to 233 years, making family-based migration illusory for certain family members from countries with a higher volume of applicants, such as Mexico, India, and the Philippines. In fact, 58% of sponsors in non-F2A categories will die before their relative is able to immigrate.

In addition to the backlogs created by the caps, hundreds of thousands of green cards go unused each year. These are green cards that have gone unissued due to bureaucratic delays, processing delays, and various other administrative complications.

How can this aspect of the U.S. immigration system be improved?

Immigration quotas exacerbate the current backlogs, given that each year only a fixed number of people from each preference category and from each country are able to obtain a visa. The excess number of applicants carries over into the next year, making it so there are less visas available to those applying that year. Congress has the ability to modify the numerical limitations that impact visa availability. Additionally, Congress can act to authorize the “recapture” of the thousands of unused visas from years prior to ameliorate the backlogs. Visa recapture would allow for the total number of unused visas since the 1990s to be available to applicants currently waiting in the backlog. Together, these actions could help to reconcile the available supply of visas with the demand.