Green Cards Set to Go to Waste as Delays Persist, U.S. Concedes

Some employment-based visas are set to go to waste at the end of September, U.S. officials say, painting a bleak picture of the government’s ability to smooth legal immigration and address perennial backlogs and resource constraints.

“We do expect to have some visas go unused. It’s not a surprise,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services acting deputy director Tracy Renaud said at a court hearing Wednesday.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland is weighing a dispute over the agency’s failure to process applications for employment-based green cards that will disappear without action by the end of September.

Immigrants wait their turn for green card and citizenship interviews at May 30, 2013 at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Queens, a New York borough heavily populated with immigrants.

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