Washington: Indian-American frontline health workers protested against the pending US Green Card application in front of the US Capitol (Parliament House), and lawmakers and the Biden administration asked that the country-specific quota per capita be abolished in order to get a permanent stay card in the country. The green card is formally known as the permanent residence card. The US issues it to migrants.
Indian IT professionals come to the US mainly on H-1B Visa and are badly affected by the current immigration regime. Under this system, each country has a quota of seven percent to get a green card. Infectious disease doctor Raj Karnataka and lung doctor Pranab Singh said, “We are frontline Covid warriors and we have come here from all over the country to seek justice.” We have come for justice which has been denied to us for decades. ”
The two Indian-American doctors who organized the peaceful demonstration said in a joint statement, “Most of us are Indians. We have been trained in the US and sworn to serve the sick as doctors. Most of us are serving in rural and backward areas. ” He said that his green card applications are pending due to the country’s demarcation issue for issuing green cards.
According to doctors, high-skilled expatriates cannot change their jobs due to pending applications for decades, fearing that they may lose their place in the green card queue. Dr. Karnataka and Dr. Singh said that India has a population of more than one billion but the people of India will get as many green cards as the people of a small country like Iceland. There is about 4.73 lakh pending green card applications in the US.
