[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-1-en-105":3,"doc-seo-305311-105":53,"doc-detail-305311-en":126},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,14,19,24,29,34,39,44,49],{"id":8,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":11,"show_sort_weight":12,"slug":13},11,1,"Template","Presentations",90,"presentations",{"id":15,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":16,"show_sort_weight":17,"slug":18},12,"Resumes",80,"resumes",{"id":20,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":21,"show_sort_weight":22,"slug":23},14,"Invoices",70,"invoices",{"id":25,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":26,"show_sort_weight":27,"slug":28},15,"Posters",60,"posters",{"id":30,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":31,"show_sort_weight":32,"slug":33},16,"Social Media",50,"social-media",{"id":35,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":36,"show_sort_weight":37,"slug":38},17,"Forms",40,"forms",{"id":40,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":41,"show_sort_weight":42,"slug":43},18,"Letters",30,"letters",{"id":45,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":46,"show_sort_weight":47,"slug":48},21,"Paper Templates",5,"papers-templates",{"id":50,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":51,"show_sort_weight":4,"slug":52},158,"General","general-158",{"code":4,"msg":54,"data":55},"ok",{"site_id":56,"language":57,"slug":58,"title":59,"keywords":60,"description":61,"schema_data":62,"social_meta":119,"head_meta":121,"extra_data":123,"updated_unix":125},105,"en","reducing-the-immigration-backlog-executive-summary-policy-recommendations","Reducing the Immigration Backlog - Executive Summary - Policy Recommendations","","Executive Summary and policy recommendations address how a record backlog of U.S. employment- and skills-based immigration applications creates unusually long processing waits for high-skilled immigrants. The report compares U.S. timelines with other rich English-speaking nations, argues the pandemic worsened conditions but did not cause the crisis, and attributes the backlog to complex, outdated federal rules. Proposed reforms aim to accelerate processing for premium applicants and regular cases while improving online filing and reducing workload through targeted program and category changes.",{"@graph":63,"@context":118},[64,80,101],{"@type":65,"itemListElement":66},"BreadcrumbList",[67,71,74,77],{"item":68,"name":69,"@type":70,"position":9},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":72,"name":10,"@type":70,"position":73},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/",2,{"item":75,"name":51,"@type":70,"position":76},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/general/",3,{"item":78,"name":59,"@type":70,"position":79},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/reducing-the-immigration-backlog-executive-summary-policy-recommendations/305311/",4,{"url":78,"name":59,"@type":81,"image":82,"author":87,"headline":59,"publisher":90,"fileFormat":93,"inLanguage":57,"description":61,"dateModified":94,"datePublished":95,"encodingFormat":93,"isAccessibleForFree":96,"interactionStatistic":97},"DigitalDocument",{"url":83,"@type":84,"width":85,"height":86},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/reducing-the-immigration-backlog-executive-summary-policy-recommendations/305311.png","ImageObject",442,249,{"name":88,"@type":89},"Paura","Person",{"url":68,"name":91,"@type":92},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-21","2026-09-19",true,{"@type":98,"interactionType":99,"userInteractionCount":73},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":100},"ViewAction",{"@type":102,"mainEntity":103},"FAQPage",[104,110,114],{"name":105,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":107},"What problem does the report focus on?","Question",{"text":108,"@type":109},"The report focuses on record-long backlogs and wait times for U.S. immigration applications, especially for high-skilled immigrants seeking to work, invest, or innovate in the United States.","Answer",{"name":111,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":112},"Why does the backlog persist according to the report?",{"text":113,"@type":109},"It points to the difficulty and complexity of the U.S. immigration system, including outdated federal rules that delay employment start dates, restrict entrepreneurship, and increase costs for both government and immigrants.",{"name":115,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What key reforms does the report recommend?",{"text":117,"@type":109},"Recommendations include expanding premium processing to all immigration benefits with mandatory processing time limits, using premium revenue to hire more officers, improving online filing for employment-based forms, and adjusting related work-authorization and visa-related procedures.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":78,"og:type":120,"og:title":59,"og:site_name":91,"og:description":61},"article",{"robots":122,"canonical":78},"index,follow",{"doc_id":124,"site_id":56},305311,1789967527,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":127},{"doc_id":124,"user_id":128,"nickname":88,"user_avatar":129,"doc_module":9,"category_id":50,"category_name":51,"doc_title":59,"doc_description":61,"doc_content":130,"file_id":131,"file_url":132,"file_type":133,"file_size":134,"view_count":73,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":9,"is_downloadable":9,"audit_status":9,"page_count":135,"language":136,"language_code":57,"site_id":56,"html_lang":57,"table_of_contents":137,"faqs":138,"seo_title":139,"seo_description":61,"update_tm":140,"read_time":15},13056712833777,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","Report  \nAb ou t US  \nThe Manhattan Institute is a think tank whose mission is to develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility.  \nDecember 2022  \nReducing the Immigration Backlog Daniel Di Martino  \nGraduate Fellow  \nManhattan Institute  \nExecutive Summary  \nA record backlog of immigration applications has resulted in record-long wait times for highskilled immigrants to come to the U.S. to work, invest, and innovate. The U.S. takes two to 10 times as long to process most employment and skills-based immigration applications as do other rich English-speaking nations. Many high-skilled immigrant applications that take several years in the U.S. are processed within one business day in the United Kingdom. The pandemic slowed the processing of immigration applications but did not cause the current crisis, which was years in the making. In order to alleviate this backlog and make it easier for immigrants—and especially high skilled immigrants—to contribute to the country, this report proposes a series of reforms that should be implemented by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and other agencies.  \nPolicy Recommendations  \n• USCIS should expand premium processing to all immigration benefits, allowing immigrants to pay for faster services. Doing so would provide USCIS with the necessary revenue to end the backlog in four to seven years, while imposing mandatory time limits on the processing of applications.  \n• Revenue from premium processing should be used to hire new immigration officers to quickly process premium applications first, and then to reduce processing times for regular applications.  \nContacts  \nTo request an information packet about MI, or if you have questions about how to support us,  \ncontact support@ manhattan[institute.org](institute.org).  \n52 Vanderbilt Ave. New York, NY 10017 (212) 599-7000 info@manhattan  \n[institute.org](institute.org)  \nReducing the Immigration Backlog  \n• USCIS should call on retired adjudicators to come back to the agency in a part-or full-time capacity, giving them the option to collect retirement and additional pay, while the agency works on hiring and onboarding new staff to reduce backlogs more quickly.  \n• Reducing the use of work-authorization form I-765 to only the categories of noncitizens that strictly require it would help reduce the workload of USCIS and immediately give work authorization to millions of noncitizens every year, months in advance.  \n• The State Department should reinstate visa stamping inside the U.S.  \n• USCIS should make online filing available to all employment-based immigration forms.  \n• Customs and Border Protection should expand automatic revalidation for H-1B, O-1, and L-1 visa holders and their dependents and expand it to other allied nations.  \n• Allow immigrants to easily downgrade their EB filing category online with USICS.  \nIntroduction  \nOther countries may seek to compete with us; but in one vital area, as a beacon of freedom and opportunity that draws the people of the world, no country on Earth comes close. This, I believe, is one of the most important sources of America’s greatness.  \nRonald Reagan, January 19, 1989  \nAs President Reagan remarked, immigrants are one of the most important sources of America’s greatness. Immigrants—especially high-skilled immigrants—drive innovation and entrepreneurship. Immigrants have founded most of America’s billion-dollar companies,1 despite representing less than 14% of the U.S. population now and much less a few decades ago.2 Immigrants have also accounted for 28% of all U.S. Nobel Laureates (112 out of 400) . The empirical evidence suggests that high-skilled immigrants benefit the labor-market outcomes of less skilled native-born workers while having an ambiguous effect on those of other highskilled native-born workers, and they benefit the whole population through faster innovation and more investment that raises wages and creat","cbCailxkvd4jyXSc","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailxkvd4jyXSc","pdf",1984604,35,"English","# Executive Summary\n## Policy Recommendations\n## Contacts\n# Introduction\n## Impact of High-Skilled Immigration\n## Drivers of Declining Interest\n## Complexity and System Delays","[{\"question\":\"What problem does the report focus on?\",\"answer\":\"The report focuses on record-long backlogs and wait times for U.S. immigration applications, especially for high-skilled immigrants seeking to work, invest, or innovate in the United States.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the backlog persist according to the report?\",\"answer\":\"It points to the difficulty and complexity of the U.S. immigration system, including outdated federal rules that delay employment start dates, restrict entrepreneurship, and increase costs for both government and immigrants.\"},{\"question\":\"What key reforms does the report recommend?\",\"answer\":\"Recommendations include expanding premium processing to all immigration benefits with mandatory processing time limits, using premium revenue to hire more officers, improving online filing for employment-based forms, and adjusting related work-authorization and visa-related procedures.\"}]","Reducing the Immigration Backlog - Executive Summary - Policy Recommendations | PDF",1789823715]