Inadequate annual green card quotas and inordinate delays in processing applications for skilled employment-based and family-sponsored immigrants have had an adverse impact on the economy of the United States, according to a new report by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), a policy group based in Arlington, Virginia.

The report warns that inadequate legal immigration quotas is resulting in highly skilled immigrants waiting for more than five years for green cards, while U.S. families sponsoring close relatives often wait from five to 22 years.

Titled “Legal Immigrant: Waiting Forever,” the report also noted that the U.S. Congress has failed to increase the H-1B [non-immigrant visas given to foreign skilled workers] cap in recent years, leaving employers with no way to hire skilled foreign nationals for many months at a time.

Since it can take five years or more for a U.S. employer to sponsor a skilled foreigner for permanent residence, the availability of H-1B visas is important as skilled foreign nationals, particularly among graduates of U.S. universities, could not otherwise work or remain in the United States, the report noted.

“In addressing immigration policy, Congress must examine the need to expand green card quotas for family-sponsored and employment-based immigrants,” the report said. “To ensure the continued flow of talent to the United States, it also must address the necessity of an increase in the H-1B cap for skilled professionals and sufficiently liberalized policies toward international students.”

Noting that South Asian Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs have founded nearly one-third of Silicon Valley’s technology companies, the report said Congress is inadvertently delaying or preventing the cycle of innovative activity that has proved to be so valuable to the United States and U.S. citizens.

“Unfortunately, due to these long waits and disruptions, the day may soon come when promising international students and outstanding foreign-born scientists and engineers decide that the United States is no longer the land of opportunity for them,” the report said.

It noted that currently, to gain an interview for a visitor visa at a U.S. consulate, it takes 169 days in Mumbai, 114 in Calcutta, and 70 days in Tel Aviv, Israel.

“Unfortunately, these long waits and disruptions have adverse consequences for our economy and U.S. global competitiveness, as well as on families suffering from long separations,” said Stuart Anderson, executive director of National Foundation for American Policy and co-author of the report.

Anderson, who chairs the Senate Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Border security and Citizenship, said the report illustrates that legal immigrants who play by the rules, experience significant hardships that harm families, businesses and ultimately the U.S. economy.

Anderson said that legislation introduced by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) would address key problems on employment-based immigration quotas.

Present at the media conference were Aman Kapoor, founder of Immigration Voice, a volunteer organization focused on the green card backlog for skilled immigrants and Shilpa Ghodgaonkar, whose husband has waited for years for an employment-based green card.

The “2006 Economic Report of the President,” issued in February this year, noted that immigrants make up an increasing share of the scientific workforce. In 2002, immigrants made up about 24 percent of scientists and engineers aged 25 to 44, an increase from 17 percent in 1996. The higher the education level, the larger the share of immigrants: thus, among scientists and engineers with only a bachelor’s degree, 17 percent were immigrants, up from 11 percent in 1996; while among those with doctoral or professional degrees, 43 percent were foreign-born, up from 38 percent in 1996.