Green Card | Immigration Road Blog

Startup Visa Bill to Help Immigrant Entrepreneurs

On February 25, 2010, In Green Card, Politics, U.S. Immigration, By IR_Blog

Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar introduced legislation today that is going to reward immigrant entrepreneurs who can create jobs with green cards.

Titled “Startup Visa Act of 2010,” the bill will grant a two-year conditional visa to an entrepreneur who can secure $250,000 or more for his/her start-up venture from a qualified U.S. investor. After two years, if the company has generated at least five full-time jobs in the U.S., attracted additional $1 million, or achieved at least $1 million in revenue, the immigrant founder will be able to remove the conditions and become permanent resident (green card).

We fully support this proposal. In fact, we have been promoting the same idea for over two years now. Here is what we said in our Immigration Reform section:

Create visa category for entrepreneurs
Expand EB-5 to include entrepreneurs. They will earn permanent residence not by how much money they bring to the U.S., but by how many jobs they can create. It rewards innovation, and might just allow a foreign student with a brilliant idea, but no money, to try and succeed.

This bill will not increase the total number of immigrant visas. Instead, it will create a new EB-6 visa category which draws visas from the existing EB-5 pool. EB-5 is basically rewarding entrepreneurs who are already successful outside the United States and therefore are capable of investing their own money to create U.S. jobs (this is why they are often called investor visas). EB-6, as a comparison, would offer the same reward (green card) to people who are not as rich, but have innovative ideas that are endorsed by angel or venture investors. Both EB5 and EB6 visa holders are given two years to prove their worth, by demonstrating the creation of new jobs or real growth, for example.

A group of 160 venture capitalists and investors are supporting this bill.

Just like any immigration reform bill, it will draw plenty of criticism. And just like any immigration reform bill introduced over the past few years, the odds of eventually becoming law are slim at best, no matter how reasonable they are.

January 2010 Visa Bulletin and Predictions

On December 21, 2009, In Green Card, U.S. Immigration, Visa Bulletin, By IR_Blog

January 2010 visa bulletin delivered little to cheer about, but DOS offered some predictions on future visa availability which can be quite helpful.

Employment-Based First, Fourth and Fifth Preferences
For January 2010, all EB1, EB4 and EB5 categories remain current.

Employment-Based Second Preferences (EB-2)
All EB2 countries other than India and China are still current in January. For India-born applicants, the cutoff date is still 01/22/2005 – no change from the December 2009 visa bulletin. Applicants from mainland China saw their PD cut-off date advancing just one month, to 05/01/2005.

Employment-Based Third Preferences (EB-3)
The situation is not much better for EB-3; although all countries of chargeability moved forward, it was a 1 or 2-month advance across the board. For January, EB3 Worldwide, Philippines and China stand at 08/01/2002, while Mexico is one month behind at 07/01/2002, and India trailing by one year at 06/22/2001.

EB-3 Other Workers category has the same PD cutoff date for all countries: 06/01/2001.

How come EB cutoff dates didn’t move in recent months?
The Department of State offered an explanation in the January Visa Bulletin: At the end of FY 2009, which ended on September 30, 2009, many EB categories were “unavailable.” So when FY-2010 visas were released during October and November, the demand was very high because of the large number of eligible I-485 cases. USCIS was also processing green card applications at a fast pace, and may have pre-adjudicated many of them, which resulted a high depletion rate of visa numbers for the first quarter.

With older cases now near completion, another batch of visa numbers are being released, which is the reason why January has started to see some forward movement.

Projections for cut-off date movement for the remainder of FY-2010
The Department of State offered some predictions on visa availabilities from now to September. These projections are helpful in many ways, but should be treated as just estimates.

EB-1 is likely to remain current for all countries of chargeability throughout FY-2010.
EB-2, other than India and China, is also likely to remain current.
EB-2 China and India will continue to be oversubscribed, and may even become “unavailable” if high demand depletes available visa numbers before the end of September.However, if there are unused visa numbers from a particular category during a calendar quarter, they may be made available to China and India (or other oversubscribed counties) without regard to per-country limitation. This is usually referred to as visa “rollover” or “spill-over” in the immigration community.In case of visa rollover, the same cutoff date is applied to each country receiving the extra visa numbers. So if EB2 India is still more retrogressed than China when that occurs, more visa numbers may go to EB2 India because there are more applicants with earlier priority dates.
EB-3 is expected to move forward but continue to have cut-off dates for all countries. For this reason it is unlikely there will be any visa numbers unused.

In summary, DOS projects the following cutoff date movement for the remainder of FY2010 (best case scenario)

Employment Second (EB-2):
China:	July through October 2005
India:	February through early March 2005
In case of visa rollover or spillover:
China:	October through December 2005
India:	October through December 2005
Employment Third (EB-3):
Worldwide:	April through August 2005
China:	June through September 2003
India:	January through February 2002
Mexico:	January through June 2004
Philippines:	April through August 2005

Family-based visa bulletin projections
Cutoff date movement in the family preferences has been relatively fast recently and DOS expects the trend to continue for at least a few more months. The reason is that fewer applicants are proceeding with their consular processing cases, as well as the low volume of FB adjustment of status cases. However, DOS warns that the movement may slow or even stop at some point, and certain categories may retrogress further if demand picks up.

Chances of Winning the Green Card Lottery

On November 11, 2009, In Green Card, U.S. Immigration, By IR_Blog

The Diversity Visa program, often called the green card lottery, is definitely one of the easiest ways to become a permanent resident of the United States. The difficulty, of course, is to win the lottery first.

What are your chances of winning the green card lottery?

Each year there are millions of people participating in the program. DV-2010, for example, received 13.6 million qualified entries. The total number of applicants should have been much higher because some of them were rejected for a variety of reasons. Out of 13.6 million, only 102800 were selected randomly by a computer, i.e., winning the lottery. That turns out to be about 1 in every 270 people.

There are only 50,000 diversity visas available each year. So half of the 102800 lottery winners will not get a green card after all. The reason Department of State selected more applicants is that some of them may not proceed with actual visa application, and some may miss the deadline, or see their applications rejected.

So for DV-2010, one lucky winner out of 540 eligible applicants actually got a green card. Not a great percentage, but not too bad either. Here is a more detailed breakdown, using DOS data:

	Qualified Entries	Selected Entries (Lottery Winners)		Green Cards Available
DV-2010	13600000	102800	0.76%	50000	0.37%
DV-2009	9100000	99600	1.09%	50000	0.55%
DV-2008	6400000	96000	1.50%	50000	0.78%

Note that different geographic regions may have slightly different odds, and it fluctuates every year depending on entry volume. Also countries with high immigration rate to the U.S. are excluded from the lottery, meaning that natives from India, China, Brazil, UK, Canada and several other countries are not eligible to participate in the DV program.

The online entry registration period for DV-2011 will end on Monday, November 30, 2009. If you are interested and eligible, don’t wait for the last minute. And if you are selected, submit your visa application as soon as possible to increase your chances of securing a green card.

CIS Ombudsman Offers Help to Derivative I-485 Applicants

On November 6, 2009, In Green Card, U.S. Immigration, By IR_Blog

If you are a derivative spouse or child of a principal applicant whose I-485 has been approved, but yours is still pending, you may now ask CIS Ombudsman to look into your case. His office will investigate whether your cases have been separated incidentally.

Usually dependents’ adjustment of status (green card) applications are approved together with the primary application, or within a short period of time. Sometimes, however, there may be a significant delay of several months or more. This could be caused by additional processing of RFE, prolonged security checks, etc. If this is the case there is not much you can do rather than waiting.

However, sometimes the delay is caused by the separation of your AOS application from your spouse’s or parent’s I-485. In this case you really want to contact USCIS and bring up the matter with the service center.

The CIS Ombudsman is now looking into this issue. In an update posted today, the Ombudsman asks that if 30 days have passed after a principal’s I-485 was approved, and your derivative I-485 is still pending, you may send a request to his office for investigation. To do so, you should submit the following evidence to cisombudsman.publicaffairs@dhs.gov:

DHS Form 7001,
A scanned copy of the principal applicant’s I-485 approval notice,
A scanned copy of the Form I-485 receipt notice for the derivative,
A scanned copy of the I-140 immigrant petition approval notice (if employment-based), and
Any other evidence that is pertinent to the case.

In your email, please note in the subject line: “Unapproved Derivative I-485.”

If the Ombudsman does help you obtain I-485 approval, please leave a comment below or send us an email.

November 2009 Visa Bulletin

On October 10, 2009, In Green Card, U.S. Immigration, Visa Bulletin, By IR_Blog

Apparently USCIS requested tons of visa numbers in October, and the State Department decided to leave EB cutoff dates nearly unchanged for November.

The receipt of demand from Citizenship and Immigration Services Offices has far exceeded their earlier indications of cases eligible for immediate processing. As a result, it has been necessary to hold most of the Employment cut-off dates for November. At this time, it is not possible to provide any estimates regarding future cut-off date movements.

EB2 China will move forward by one week, while EB2 India stays steady at January 22, 2005.

EB3 China is the only category that will experience a rather sizable movement: from February 22 to June 1, 2002. Mexico EB3 will advance one month to June 1, 2002.

Certain religious workers and EB5 pilot programs are “unavailable,” awaiting legislative actions.

Below is a visa bulletin graph for employment-based third preference categories. Y-axis represents visa retrogression, in number of years.

Tagged with: Green Card • I-485 • Visa Bulletin

New USCIS.GOV Website Review – Green Card Tracker

On September 28, 2009, In Green Card, U.S. Immigration, USCIS, By IR_Blog

Finally, USCIS delivered! Now you have an official USCIS green card tracker.

The “pending I-485 data” posted on the new uscis.gov website is exactly what we have been waiting for. The i-485 inventory chart not only displays the total number of pending green card applications, but is broken down by priority date, preference category and country of origin. These three levels of details determine your position in the waiting line, and can give you a much better estimate of when your adjustment of status (green card) application will be processed.

1. Country of Origin

There are essentially five lines for employment-based green cards, separated by country of chargeability. The five lines are China, India, Mexico, the Phillipines, and All Other Countries (a.k.a. Rest of World – ROW). The monthly visa bulletin, which determines who is eligible for a visa number, releases visas based on chargeability. Historically China, India, Mexico and the Phillipines are “over-subscribed” countries, meaning there are more applicants from these countries than visa numbers available each year. As a result, these countries are tracked separately in the visa bulletin and USCIS’ i-485 inventory report.

2. Preference Category

Each of the five country-specific lines is further divided by preference categories. For example, EB-1 priority workers, EB-2 professionals with advanced degrees, EB-3 skilled workers, etc. The average waiting time for green card varies dramatically from one preference to another. USCIS did an excellent job by compiling and also presenting the data in the reports.

3. Priority Date

A priority date is when the green card process officially starts, which is usually the date when labor certification or I-140 is filed. Your priority date (PD) determines your position in the line, for your EB category and country of chargeability. This is the one piece of information that tells you exactly how many people are in front of you. USCIS breaks the total number of pending I-485 cases down to each month of a given year based on priority date.

How do I use the green card tracker?

Suppose you are from China, have a priority date of March 2007, and your immigrant petition is in EB2, you can see from the chart below that 786 applicants with a priority date in the same month and year as yours are waiting in line in the EB2 China category. You don’t have to know how many of the 786 people are in front you, because quite likely all of you will become eligible for a visa on the same day.

Now the more important question is how many people have a priority date earlier than yours. Again from the chart, you simply add up all the numbers before March 2007:

1 + 1 +2 + 13 + 20 + 35 + 123 + 4,084 + 8,581 + 743 + 671 = 14274

So there are a total of 14274 applicants from China in EB-2 category who are in front you in the waiting line for green card. You can’t find this level of detail and precision anywhere else.

How do I know when my green card will be approved?

Unfortunately you don’t know that yet, at least not accurately, since this is the first time USCIS published such report. USCIS plans to update the green card tracker every quarter. So after the next one, you will know how many people ahead of you (or behind you, for some reason) have received their green card or otherwise left the line. Comparing that with the Visa Bulletin, you will have a better idea of how much longer you have to wait for your turn.

Pending I-485 Adjustment of Status Applications based on Priority Date for China EB-2:

China EB2	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	Grand Total
January	0	0	0	0	0	6	4	11	9	509	743	18	2	1,302
February	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	152	508	671	9	0	1,343
March	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	4	612	713	786	11	1	2,128
April	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	11	71	493	686	16	4	1,285
May	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	1	145	612	552	16	2	1,330
June	0	0	0	0	2	3	4	5	188	803	567	12	0	1,584
July	0	0	1	0	4	1	4	6	211	713	1,906	16	0	2,862
August	0	0	0	0	1	1	3	11	404	827	190	5	0	1,442
September	0	0	0	2	0	5	0	17	1,028	922	107	12	0	2,093
October	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	13	401	869	62	6	0	1,361
November	0	0	0	0	3	2	5	13	395	762	26	14	0	1,220
December	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	29	468	850	29	4	0	1,383
Total	0	1	1	2	13	20	35	123	4,084	8,581	6,325	139	9	19,333

New USCIS.GOV Website Review – Check Case Status

On September 23, 2009, In Green Card, U.S. Immigration, USCIS, By IR_Blog

USCIS has now unveiled the much hyped case status checking system. Although it is noticeably better than its predecessor, it fell short of expectations.

From the DHS leadership journal and various speeches made by government officials, people had the impression that the new online status system would achieve two major objectives:

Identify the current processing step of an immigration case, i.e. let a customer know what has been done, what is being worked on and what is coming next on their application; and,
Provide an estimated waiting time before a case can be adjudicated, i.e. let a customer know “how many people are waiting in line or how long it may be before USCIS can process and approve his application.”

USCIS has done a fairly good job for No. 1 (case status), but not nearly enough for No. 2 (waiting time).

The case status tool now displays seven steps: Acceptance, Initial Review, Request for Evidence (RFE), Testing and Interview, Decision, Post Decision Activity, and Document Production or Oath Ceremony. Below is an example of the RFE step (see more examples here):

uscis-case-status-request-for-evidence

The benefit of this format is that all processing steps are displayed in one window – people who are not familiar with the immigration process are now able to figure out what steps have been completed and what is likely to come next. For others, especially high-tech workers under employment based categories, this change is far less appealing because most of them understand the green card work flow quite well already.

As it stands now, a new status update will replace the old one, and if a case has reached the next step, previous ones will be grayed out. A better way would be to keep all status updates in the system until at least some time after the case has been adjudicated. This way it also acts as a personal journal for the applicant. The data are stored in the USCIS database anyway, why not make them useful?

The new alert function via text messaging is nice and geeky, but doesn’t deserve so much spotlight in my opinion.

Regardless of how case status is presented, what is critical to immigrants is that the information in the system is complete and up to date. For example:

Does the system reflect a RFE that has been responded to?
Is background check information included in the report?
Does a rescheduled appointment or interview get updated?
If a case is at a certain stage, does it mean all previous steps have been completed? In another word, does RFE mean FBI name check is cleared? If an interview is scheduled, does it mean all RFE’s have been processed?

The waiting time report, implemented as National Volume and Trends on the new website, is far from what everyone expected. We will discuss it in a separate post.

It is worth mentioning that USCIS redesigned the website in a hurry, and completed the bulk of new development in roughly three months. So it is probably unrealistic to expect a complete overhaul. It is an excellent start, however, and USCIS deserves credit for that. But we certainly hope that the efforts don’t stop here. USCIS.gov is one of the most popular government websites (6 million visitors monthly), so hopefully the agency will have the support to continue to make it better.

Immigration Road Signs

On September 16, 2009, In Fun, Green Card, U.S. Immigration, By IR_Blog

A road sign is a board standing on the side of the road that provides information or instructions to travelers. Whether you are driving to the Grand Canyon, biking to work, or walking to a grocery store, you will see road signs everywhere. They are easy to understand. But if you are marching (or crawling) toward a green card, the signs you see along the Immigration Road may have different meanings:

I-485
	I-485 is a busy freeway: most people in the U.S. choose this route to get their green card. Unfortunately it has a speed limit of 10mph.
Speed Limit – miles per hour (mph)
	0mph speed limit doesn’t make much sense, but if you are travelling on the Immigration Highway, don’t be surprised if you see it more than once.
Road Condition
	Slippery
	Bumpy
	Flooded
No Honking!
	Nobody would listen anyway, why bother?
Directions
	USCIS sometimes gives out better, less confusing instructions, but not always.
Stop Sign
	Stop right there, and wait for further instructions. Department of Labor once put up a huge stop sign so that they could “centralize” all labor certification applications; it only took a couple years before traffic was moving again.
Road Closed
	If you pick the wrong route, or have a late start, you will see the road closed sign eventually. You need to find an alternative as soon as possible.
Traffic Lights
	The Department of State uses traffic lights (aka visa bulletin) to control who gets to proceed, and who has to stay. Unlike regular traffic signals, a red light here could last 10 years or more.
Car Pool
	If you married a U.S. citizen and the two of you are travelling together, you can take the carpool lane. There are multiple check points though, and people who get caught with only a dummy on the passenger seat will get into trouble.
Toll Booth Ahead
	Every road is a toll road. Journey to green card is expensive.
Welcome!
	You have reached your destination.

All images used in this post are in the public domain, or licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 (Wikimedia Commons)

October 2009 Visa Bulletin

On September 10, 2009, In Green Card, U.S. Immigration, Visa Bulletin, By IR_Blog

October 2009 visa bulletin – the first for FY 2010 – was released today by the Department of State.

Employment-Based Second Preference

EB-2 China advanced only two months to March 22, 2005, while India inched ahead to January 22, 2005. Although dissappointing, we still may see quite a few I-485 approvals for applicants with a 2004 or early 2005 priority date. As widely reported, these cases should have been pre-adjudicated by USCIS and are in line to receive the first batch of visa numbers for the new fiscal year.

EB2 ROW (Rest of the World), Mexico and Philippines continue to remain current for October 2009.

Employment-Based Third Preference

After a five-month shutdown, all EB3 categories have visa numbers available for October, but retrogression is still severe across the board. Cutoff dates are set to either 2002 or even 2001. We had hoped that it would be at least 2003, at least for some categories under EB3. Now we have to wait for the November visa bulletin for that to happen.

Employment-Based Forth Preference

EB-4 became current, as expected. However, EB4 Religious Worker category remains unavailable, and here is DOS’ explanation:

Employment Fourth Preference Certain Religious Workers: Pursuant to Section 1 of Public Law 111-9, the non-minister special immigrant program expires on September 30, 2009. No SR-1, SR-2, or SR-3 visas may be issued overseas on or after September 30, 2009. Visas issued prior to this date will only be issued with a validity date of September 30, 2009, and all individuals seeking admission as a non-minister special immigrant must be admitted (repeat, admitted) into the U.S. no later than midnight September 30, 2009.

Employment-Based Fifth Preference

EB5 categories for Investors and Regional Centers remain current, but EB5 Pilot Program is facing expiration date of 09/30/2009:

Employment Fifth Preference Pilot Categories(I5, R5): Section 101 of Division J of the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009, extended this immigrant investor pilot program through September 30, 2009. The I5 and R5 visas may be issued until close of business on September 30, 2009, and may be issued for the full validity period. No I5-1, I5-2, I5-3, R5-1, R5-2 or R5-3 visas may be issued after September 30, 2009.

If Congress acts to extend one or both programs mentioned above, their cutoff dates would immediately change to “current” for October.

You have been pre-approved to enter the United States

On August 24, 2009, In Green Card, Travel, U.S. Immigration, By IR_Blog

You just got off the plane after a 15-hour flight from Asia, waited another hour for your luggage to finally pop out, and walked seemlingly a mile to get to the exit. Then you see the all-too-familiar scene: hundreds of people lined up to go through customs and immigration inspection. But you are probably too tired to be mad at that point, especially if Corporate sent out a coach-only memo just before your trip.
global-entry-kiosk

Now there is good news. Next time you might be able to bypass the long lines and get out of the airport a bit more quickly.

The Global Entry Program from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been expanded to now include 20 international airports across the United States. Participants in the program may use self-service kiosks, much like ATM or self-checkout machines, to complete customs and passport control. According to CBP, “Global Entry is a traveler’s ticket to get out of line.”

Not everyone is eligible for Global Entry though. Only U.S. citizens, permanent residents and foreign nationals from certain countries may apply to enroll in this program. After $100, a thorough background check, and an in-person interview with a CBP officer, you will be granted a 5-year membership if your application is approved.

If you are accepted, here is what you will do when you arrive at the airport:

Bypass passport control lines and proceed to the Global Entry Kiosk
Scan your passport and fingerprints
Answer Declaration questions
Take receipt to expedited exit point

Designated airports include LAX, JFK, SFO, BOS, among others. Check out the CBP brochure for complete list of participating airports and detailed instructions on how to apply.

September 2009 Visa Bulletin

On August 12, 2009, In Green Card, U.S. Immigration, Visa Bulletin, By IR_Blog

September is the last month of Fiscal Year 2009 and there are two substantial movements in term of visa cut-off dates:

China EB2 and India EB2 will both advance to January 8, 2005; and
All EB4 categories have become unavailable, starting immediately.

Employment Based Second Preference

India EB2 cutoff date is moving to January 8, 2005. Believe it or not, there are still more than a few Indian professionals waiting since 2003 and 2004. It is quite a relief for those early filers and their families. India EB2 cutoff dates have been around 2003 and 2004 all year, briefly retrogressing to January 1, 2000 in the July visa bulletin, so finally moving on to 2005 is welcoming news.

China EB2 is also set to January 8, 2005, more or less in line with most FY2009 visa bulletins for this category, except for July.

It appears that July is a “catch-up” month, when USCIS and DOS intentionally set cutoff dates more conservatively, wait for case processing to catch up, re-evaluate visa number usage, and get ready to allocate the final block of visa numbers during August and September. The image below is a chart of visa number retrogression for all EB2 categories.

Employment Based Third Preference

All EB3 categories remain “unavailable” for September, which means no EB3 AOS applications will be approved, and no new I-485 will be allowed to be filed for the month. Starting October 1st, next year’s visa numbers will become available.

Employment Based Forth Preference

In a surprising move, DOS announced that visa numbers for the entire EB4 preference, including Certain Religious Workers categories, have been exhausted. More importantly, the “unavailable” status took effect immediately, on August 11, rather than starting September 1. This is a nightmare for people who are eligible to file I-485 based on the current visa bulletin, but have not been able to do so.

The EB4 Certain Religious Workers category is set to expire on September 30, unless extended by Congress.

DOS does indicate that EB4 will become current again in the October 2009 visa bulletin.

Other Employment Based Preferences

All EB1, EB2 other than China and India, and EB5 categories are “current.”

Family Based Preferences

Minor 1- to 3-month movement for most family sponsored immigration categories.

Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery Categories

For DV-2009 registrants, all DV categories remain current (except Egypt and Ethiopia) during September. Note that September 30, 2009 is the last day an immigrant visa may be issued to a DV-2009 applicant. DV-2010 visa cut-off numbers will be established for October.

USCIS Orders $3.1 Million Worth of Green Cards

On August 6, 2009, In Green Card, U.S. Immigration, USCIS, By IR_Blog

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently placed a purchase order of $3.1 million for additional green cards. According to LaserCard, recipient of the order, these permanent resident cards are to be delivered by December 31, 2009.

I don’t know exactly how much it costs to produce a piece of green card, but 3 million dollars is a huge amount by any means, especially since there are only five months left for 2009.

So, can we assume that USCIS is preparing to issue truckloads of green cards coming October?

It is not that far fetched, if you think about it. The visa bulletin has been in a virtual standstill since May, for much of EB2 and EB3 anyway. There have been various reports that USCIS has been pre-adjudicating I-485 cases aggressively, and now those cases are ready to be approved as soon as visa numbers become available. And FBI name check, the old bottleneck, is no longer heavily backlogged.

Based on all of above, it is reasonable to expect that a large number of people with earlier priority dates will receive their green cards shortly after October 1, the first day when new fiscal year’s visa number can be released. The Department of State will no doubt regulate the flow of visa numbers in a controlled manner, but they still have to open the gate. So for those waiting patiently for years, hopefully 2009 will finally be the year.

green-card-image

Now if anyone has an idea of how much it costs to manufacture a green card, please share with us. The production line that makes green cards is likely making millions of credit cards, ATM cards, and other similar products too. So even if green cards have enhanced security features, I can’t imagine it would cost more than $1-2, given the huge volume. If that estimate is in the ball-park, plus logistics and bureaucratic waste, USCIS may be ordering 1 million green cards by year end. USCIS issued about 1.1 million new green cards in 2008, and an unknown number of replacement green cards, so the 1-million number may not be too off.

Immigration Road Blog

Along the Immigration Road: Green Card, Visa, U.S. Citizenship and More