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Employer-sponsored green card applicants are now facing the longest processing times on record, according to a recent analysis by the Cato Institute. By the second quarter of 2025, the average wait time had climbed to 1,256 days—approximately 3.44 years— compared to just 705 days (1.9 years) in 2016. Even with a $2,805 premium processing fee, the total timeline remains around 2.8 years, underscoring the depth of the backlog.
The employment-based green card process spans six major stages, each taking significantly longer than in prior years:
Prefiling documentation – Collecting academic, employment, and wage evidence.
Prevailing wage determination – 187 days in 2025 vs. 76 days in 2016.
U.S. worker recruitment – 141 days vs. 131 days.
Labor certification (PERM) – 483 days vs. 180 days.
Employer petition (I-140) – 234 days (15 days with premium) vs. 180 days (15 with premium).
Green card application (I-485) – 210 days vs. 165 days.
In total, these steps add up to more than 3.4 years, not including preliminary preparation, visa cap wait times, or interim visa extensions. At the end of fiscal Q2 2025, the number of pending employer-sponsored cases exceeded 500,000, more than double 2016 levels. Overall, USCIS is managing 11.3 million pending immigration applications, reflecting systemic delays across the board.
More than 90% of employment-based green card applicants already live and work in the U.S., primarily on H-1B or other temporary visas, while waiting for permanent residency. The Cato Institute criticized the process as redundant and overly burdensome, arguing that current procedures slow economic growth and undermine America’s ability to attract top global talent.
“America will lose the global talent competition when other countries grant green cards in weeks or months, not years,” the report warned, calling for radical streamlining of the legal immigration system to eliminate unnecessary steps and ensure U.S. employers can access critical skills more efficiently.
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