Seven years in US could mean a green card under new bill: Indians stuck in H-1B backlog may benefit most, here's how

As the Trump administration tightens immigration enforcement, a senior Democratic senator is pushing legislation that could open a permanent residency pathway for more than eight million long-term US residents, including the large number of Indian professionals stuck in the H-1B backlog.

Senator Alex Padilla of California has reintroduced a bill that would allow immigrants who have lived continuously in the United States for at least seven years to apply for lawful permanent resident status, provided they have no criminal record and meet all other existing green card requirements. The proposal would modernise an immigration provision, known as the Registry, that has not been revised since 1986.

"A year ago, I introduced this bill to push back against the Trump Administration's cruel treatment of hardworking immigrants," Padilla said. "Since then, President Trump's campaign of fear has only escalated, with families living under constant uncertainty despite having built their lives in this country."

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He added: "Congress cannot continue to ignore millions of long-term residents who contribute to our economy and communities every day. It's past time to modernise our immigration laws and create a fair pathway to lawful permanent residency."

Who stands to benefit

The bill covers a broad range of people: Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status holders, essential workers, children of long-term visa holders and highly skilled professionals, including H-1B workers who have been waiting years, sometimes decades, for employment-based green cards. Indian nationals are disproportionately represented in that last group, accounting for a large share of H-1B holders and routinely facing some of the longest wait times due to per-country caps on employment-based green cards.

What the bill actually changes

The legislation would amend Section 249 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Under the current law, the Registry allows the Homeland Security secretary to grant permanent residency to people who have been in the country since a fixed date, currently January 1, 1972. That cutoff has not moved since the Reagan administration updated it nearly four decades ago, rendering the provision almost entirely obsolete. Between 2015 and 2019, only 305 people adjusted their status through it.

Padilla's bill would replace the fixed date with a rolling seven-year residency requirement. The change would take effect 60 days after enactment.

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Who is backing it

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin is co-leading the measure, with fourteen other senators signed on as co-sponsors. Representative Zoe Lofgren of California is steering companion legislation in the House.

More than 30 labour, immigration and civil rights organisations have endorsed the bill, including the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union, UNITE HERE, United Farm Workers and the National Immigration Law Center.

What comes next

The bill faces a difficult road. Deep partisan divisions over immigration policy make passage uncertain, and the current political climate in Washington has not been receptive to measures that expand access to permanent residency.

Padilla, who serves as ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, has introduced parallel measures covering immigrant essential workers and children brought legally to the US as dependants of work-visa holders, a broader push that underscores how far the existing immigration framework has drifted from the realities of the people it governs.