A new bill introduced by U.S. lawmakers called The Dignity Act aims to open a quicker path for non-immigrants to apply for Green Cards and gain lawful permanent residency.
The bill puts forward a proposal allowing individuals stuck in the legal immigration backlog for over a decade to pay a premium fee of $50,000 to fast-track their spot in the queue. It also suggests raising the per-country limit on green cards from 7% to 15%, a move aimed at easing the backlog for high-demand countries like India.
The Act also aims to protect children who are legally in the U.S. from “aging out” of visa eligibility because of processing delays at USCIS. Another major feature of the bill is the proposed Dignity Program which is a 7-year earned legal status plan that would allow undocumented immigrants to live and work in the U.S. legally, with the option to renew their status based on good behavior and fulfilling certain obligations.
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The Dignity Act of 2025 has been introduced by Congresswomen María Elvira Salazar and Veronica Escobar, backed by a bipartisan group of 20 lawmakers.
Green Card holders are legally allowed to live and work in the U.S., but the path to getting one can take decades. For applicants, the wait can stretch beyond 100 years due to overwhelming backlogs.
USCIS has hit a major slowdown in processing immigration cases, with backlogs piling up at a historic pace during the second quarter of FY2025 (January to March). The agency managed to close only 2.7 million cases, down 18% from the same time last year and 12% from the previous quarter. Meanwhile, pending cases soared by 1.6 million, pushing the overall backlog to a record 11.3 million, the highest it’s been in over ten years. To make matters worse, over 34,000 newly filed applications hadn’t even been opened by the quarter’s end.
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Some immigration categories are under particular strain. Wait times for Green Card renewals or replacements (Form I-90) have shot up from under a month to over eight months on average nearly a tenfold jump. The backlog for work permit applications (Form I-765) is also swelling, with pending cases now crossing the two million mark. Initial filings alone have spiked by nearly 90%. These rising delays are adding more uncertainty for immigrants relying on timely approvals for jobs, travel, and legal status.
If the Dignity Act comes into enforcement, it could mark a turning point in U.S. immigration policy for stuck in long queues or backlogs.