United States Visa(5) How Many Green Cards Does the US Issue Each Year? | Unveiling the US Green Card Quota! Only 140,000 for Employment-Based Immigration?

Every day, so many of us are trying every possible way to immigrate to the US, but have you ever thought about this question: How many green cards does the US issue each year in total? What are the categories of these green card quotas? Are there any green card types that are not subject to quotas?

Today, let’s find out together how many green cards the US issues each year.

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The USCIS has stipulated three types of green cards with quotas. Let’s look at them one by one.

1.The Quotas for the Three Types of Green Cards

1.1Employment-Based (EB) Quota

As overseas Chinese, most of us are professionals in certain fields, so the type of immigration we are most likely to encounter is Employment-Based (EB). All those H1B, L1, O1, and other outstanding talents, multinational managers, etc., how many green cards are available for all these categories in the entire US each year? Only 140,000.

This is for applicants worldwide, not just us Chinese. Just think, there are tens of thousands of Chinese employees at companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, and similarly, tens of thousands of Indian employees. Yet, only 140,000 green cards are available annually through Employment-Based (EB). It’s truly negligible.

Within Employment-Based (EB), US immigration law further divides it into five subcategories. At the same time, immigration law stipulates that EB1, EB2, and EB3 each account for 28.6% of the total EB quota of 140,000, while EB4 and EB5 each make up 7.1% of the total.

This is how the 140,000 green cards for employment-based immigration are allocated.

1.2 Family-Based (FB) Quota

At the same time, many of us have heard of friends from Guangdong or Fujian who have relatives in the US and came to the US through Family-Based (FB) . How many green cards are available annually for this type of immigration? 480,000. What? Those who work in Chinatown shops, restaurants, or as truck drivers on highways have nearly three to four times more slots than us professionals with years of education and six-figure salaries?

Yes, that’s right.

It should be noted that the Family-Based (FB) quota is also subject to “oversubscription.”. Additionally, there is no quota limit for immediate relative (IR) immigration, which refers to the spouses, minor children, and parents of US citizens. In Chinese terms, these can be considered the primary beneficiaries of inheritance, essentially the essential members of one’s immediate family.

Why are there no quota restrictions for immediate Relative (IR) immigration? Because US law is somewhat considerate of human nature. A person’s spouse, parents, and children are indispensable family members. It wouldn’t make sense to limit the number of immediate family members who can reunite each year, forcing others to be separated due to quota shortages.

Although there are no quota restrictions for Immediate Relative (IR) , the number of Immediate Relative (IR) green cards issued is deducted from the total quota for regular Family-Based (FB). However, immigration law stipulates that at least 226,000 slots should be reserved for regular Family-Based (FB). Currently, the annual number of Immediate Relative (IR) immigrants is approximately 500,000, which has already exceeded the total quota of 480,000 for regular family-based immigration (FB). Therefore, the actual quota for regular Family-Based (FB) is the reserved 226,000.

1.3 Diversity Visa (DV)

More surprisingly, in addition to Employment Based (EB) and Family Based immigration (FB), there is also the Diversity Visa (DV) , which is purely based on luck, with 55,000 slots available, one-third of the employment-based immigration (EB) quota.

Note that Chinese nationals are not eligible to participate in the Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery.

Thus, under normal circumstances, the total annual green card quota for the three types of immigration is 226,000 + 140,000 + 55,000 = 421,000.

2.How Many Green Cards Can Chinese Nationals Obtain Annually

The above data pertains to the global situation. Now let’s look at the statistics for Chinese applicants. Note that "Chinese" here refers to individuals born in China, regardless of nationality. For example, a Chinese person who immigrated to Canada as a child and later applies for a US green card would still occupy a slot in the Chinese quota.

Unfortunately, most of us don’t have the fortune of having relatives in the US, so we mainly compete in the Employment-Based (EB) category. Let’s take a look.

Only 9,801 slots are available for the entire country of China. Don’t worry, there’s more.

2.1Spillover (SO)

In the green card categories subject to quotas, immigration law stipulates that the number of immigrants from any single country cannot exceed 7% of the total. It’s easy to see that for populous countries like China and India, 7% is far from sufficient. On the other hand, some European countries with smaller populations may not use up their 7% quota. This leads to a process called Spillover (SO). The specific rules for reallocation are not detailed here.

In reality, Chinese applicants can obtain more green cards than the aforementioned number due to various reallocation rules set by immigration law. These additional slots are commonly referred to as SO (Spillover). How many extra green cards can Chinese applicants obtain through Internal Spillover (SO)? Approximately over 10,000.

2.2Derivative Beneficiary

Don’t get too excited yet. According to immigration law, the spouses and minor children of Employment-Based (EB) applicants, as derivative beneficiary, also occupy the same immigration quotas as the principal applicants and share the same category and Priority Date. Imagine that on average, each Employment-Based (EB) applicant brings a spouse and a child, effectively reducing the actual number of slots to one-third.

So even though there are roughly 20,000 slots from the base quota and an additional 10,000 from Internal Spillover (SO), after accounting for spouses and children, the actual number is only about 7,000 to 8,000.

Do you know how many students are admitted to Tsinghua University each year in China? 3,500 to 3,800. And how many to Peking University? Similarly, 3,500 to 3,800. Combined, the two universities admit about 7,000 to 8,000 students annually.

In other words, obtaining a green card through employment-based immigration (EB) is as difficult as getting admitted to Tsinghua or Peking University.

I’m so stressed.

Who can relate?

3.Green Cards Without Quota Restrictions

There’s more. In addition to the three types mentioned above, there are also green cards without quota restrictions.

These include the Immediate Relatives (IR) of US citizens, with approximately 500,000 slots annually, as well as refugees and political asylum seekers, with about 100,000 to 150,000 slots each year. There are also a small number of special legislation beneficiaries, but their numbers are very limited.

Here, you might notice that the number of slots available to highly-educated talents applying for Employment-Based (EB) in the US is roughly comparable to those for refugees and political asylum seekers.

Let’s look at the totals:

Quota-restricted green cards: 226,000 + 140,000 + 55,000 = 421,000

Non-quota-restricted green cards: 500,000 + 150,000 = 650,000

Therefore, the total number of green cards issued by the US each year is roughly one million.