SEATTLE — Boundless Immigration, a technology firm that helps immigrants navigate the green card and naturalization processes, today released a new report profiling family-based immigrants. The analysis also demonstrates how President Donald Trump’s plan to curtail family-based immigration would dramatically reduce immigration overall and how there cannot be a neat split between family-based and skills-based immigration.
Titled “Top 10 Surprising Facts About Family-Based Immigration,” the report draws on hard data to unearth facts and refute misconceptions. Among the report’s findings include:
- The vast majority of family-sponsored immigrants are immediate relatives — spouses, parents and unmarried children under 21 — of U.S. citizens.
- Nearly half of all family-based and diversity-visa immigrants combined are college-educated, or “high-skill.”
- Nearly 4 million immigrants are currently waiting in line for a family-sponsored green card.
- The wait time for some family-sponsored immigrants could exceed 100 years.
- The spouses and young children of some permanent residents (green card holders) must wait an average of over 3 years to live together as a family in the U.S., while there is no such wait for the same relatives of U.S. citizens.
“The debate around family-based immigration is loaded with politicized concepts like ‘anchor babies’ and ‘merit-based immigration,’” said Xiao Wang, CEO of Boundless Immigration. “As a family-based immigrant myself, I came to recognize that these concepts were misleading. Following the release of this report, and the hard data it contains, we can prove it. ‘Family-based’ immigrants are the spouses, children, and parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. They make America stronger. They add skills we need and correct pressing demographic issues. America needs them.”
“Family-based immigration is, overwhelmingly, how people start their lives as Americans,” said Anjana Prasad, an attorney and Boundless Immigration’s senior advisor of immigration law. “There is a well-established legal process. While that process can — and should — move faster, it would be self-defeating to dramatically alter the system to start disadvantaging family-based immigrants. Lawful, family-based immigration is a positive for our economy and our country.”
The full report is available here:
https://www.boundless.com/research/family-based-immigration-report/
About Boundless Immigration
Boundless Immigration (https://www.boundless.com) is dedicated to empowering families to navigate the U.S. immigration system more confidently, rapidly, and affordably. Founded in 2017 by immigration policy and technology experts — many of whom went through the U.S. immigration process themselves — the company created an online platform that has helped thousands of people apply for green cards and U.S. citizenship while providing access to independent immigration attorneys.