U.S. visa delays
March 8, 2022
Millions of immigrants are waiting for their U.S. work permits resulting in some immigrants losing their jobs or being completely cut out of the labor market. The pandemic caused the backlog creating long processing times for visas and work permits. The estimated wait time for a work permit has risen to eight to 12 months. Before the pandemic, in 2020, the wait time was about three months. The number of pending work permits soared to about 1.5 million applications at the end of FY 2021. At the end of December 2021, there were 10.9 million U.S. job vacancies. Even as the U.S. experiences labor shortages, skilled immigrants are forced to wait the long processing times, resulting in immigrants dealing with the financial and emotional burden due to the delays.
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