The immigration system of the United States favors family reunification even in the so-called employment-based green card categories. Under current interpretations of U.S. immigration law, family members of immigrant workers must use employment-based green cards. Family-based immigration is the norm across the developed world. Japan is the only OECD country that has more immigrant workers than immigrant family members, but the difference is larger in the United States that other countries. Instead of a separate green card category for the spouses and children of workers, those family members get a green card that would otherwise have gone to a skilled worker.

In 2020, 54 percent of employment-based green cards went to the family members of workers (Figure 1). The workers themselves received the other 46 percent. Those percentages are similar to 2019. Some of those family members who received employment-based green cards are workers and many of them are highly skilled since skilled people tend to marry each other.

This is not to say that family-based immigration is a bad thing. It’s important socially, economically, and ethically to allow family members to immigrate together. Family-based immigration is so important that Congress should exempt family members from the employment green card cap altogether or, at a minimum, have a new and separate green card category for themselves so that a family member does not automatically subtract another skilled worker. If Congress exempted family members from the employment-based green card’s numerical cap or if there were a separate green card category for them, an additional 80,521 immigrant workers could have earned a green card in 2020 without increasing the numerical cap.

About 90 percent of those who received an employment-based green card in 2020 were already legally living in the United States, partly because of the COVID-19 inspired shutdown of green card processing overseas (Figure 2). That’s up from 79 percent in 2019. Those who were already legally present and received their green cards were able to adjust their immigration status from another type of visa, like an H‑1B or an F visa, to an employment-based green card. Exempting those adjustments of status from the employment ‑based green card cap would more than double the number of highly skilled workers who could have entered from abroad under the counterfactual of continued overseas processing in 2020.

Going forward, exempting adjustments of status from the employment-based green card cap would also empty the wait-line imposed by the per country caps. Such a reform would especially benefit Indian workers on the H‑1B visa by shortening their absurd wait times without increasing the wait time for immigrants from other countries. Exempting adjustments of status, rather than tinkering with the numerical cap or getting rid of the per country caps, is best for two reasons. First, the system would be more open and flexible. Second, it would avoid the debate over which arbitrary number should be the new employment-based green card cap. Congress should eliminate the per country cap but exempting adjustments of status would achieve the same goal of reducing wait times for Indian immigrants without increasing them for others.

Here are some other exemption options for increasing the number of employment-based green cards issued annually without raising the overall numerical cap:

• Workers should be exempted from the cap if they have a higher level of education, like a graduate degree or a PhD.
• Workers should be exempted from the cap if they have a graduate degree or a PhD in particular fields such as science, technology, engineering, mathematics, or medicine. The House version of the America COMPETES Act does this.
• A certain number of workers who adjust their status should be exempted in the way the H‑1B visa exempts 20,000 graduates of American universities from that visa’s numerical cap. Exempting those who earned their degrees at U.S. universities is a good start.
• Workers should be exempted if they show five or more years of legal employment in the United States prior to obtaining their green card.
• Workers should be exempted based on the occupation they intend to enter. This is a problem because it requires the government choosing which occupations are deserving, but the benefits will outweigh the costs so long as it leads to a general increase in the potential numbers of skilled immigrant workers without decreasing them elsewhere.
• Workers should be exempted from the cap if they have waited for 5 years and are otherwise eligible for a green card.
• Workers should be exempted from the cap if they work in a non-profit research institution or a university, similar to how they are exempted in the H‑1B visa.
• Workers should be exempted for other national security or geopolitical reasons if they are from particular countries that the U.S. government thinks pose a national security threat to the United States. For instance, exempting skilled workers from China, Russia, or Iran would reduce the number of skilled workers who could work in their defense industries.