March 26, 2014 11:48AM # Family Members Use Most Employment-Based Green Cards By [Alex Nowrasteh](https://www.cato.org/people/alex-nowrasteh) --- SHARE Many critics of American immigration policy claim there is too much emphasis on family reunification and not enough on employment. It’s not a problem that families can reunify in the United States, but those critics are right that the American immigration system highly favors families – even in the employment-based green card category set-aside for workers. The underlying issue is that the families of immigrant workers must use employment-based green cards. Instead of a separate green card category for spouses and children, they get a green card that would otherwise go to a worker. In 2012, 56 percent of all supposed employment-based green cards went to the family members of workers. The other 44 percent went to the actual workers. [Some of those family members are workers](https://www.cato.org/blog/many-family-sponsored-immigrants-are-workers-too), but they should have a separate green card category or be exempted from the employment green card quota of approximately 140,000 a year. If family members were exempted from the quota, or there was a separate green card for them, an additional 81,245 highly skilled immigrant workers could have entered in 2012 *without increasing the quota.* ![Media Name: emp_based_gc_by_rec_type.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/emp_based_gc_by_rec_type.jpg?itok=UADvprq7) In addition, 87.5 percent of those who gained an employment-based green card in 2012 were already legally living in the United States. They were able to adjust their immigration status from another type of visa, like an H‑1B or F visa, to an employment-based green card. Exempting some or all of the adjustments of status from the green card cap would almost double the number of highly skilled workers who could enter. ![Media Name: emp_based_gc_by_status.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/emp_based_gc_by_status.jpg?itok=xarDLE5P) Here are some other exemption options: - A certain number of workers who adjust their status could be exempted in the way the H‑1B visa exempts 20,000 graduates of American universities from the cap. - Workers could be exempted from the cap if they have a higher level of education, like a graduate degree or a PhD. - Workers could be exempted if they show five or more years of legal employment in the United States. - Workers could be exempted based on the occupation they intend to enter. This is a problem because in involves the government choosing which occupations are deserving, but so long as it leads to a general increase in the potential numbers of skilled immigrant workers without decreasing them elsewhere, the benefits will outweigh the harms. | 2012 Employment Based Green Cards | |---| | | EB 1 | EB 2 | EB 3\* | EB 4^ | EB 5~ | | All EB | Percent | | Workers‘ | 16,286 | 24,719 | 17,689 | 1,703 | 2,295 | | **62,692** | 43.56% | | Workers Adjusted‘ | 15,770 | 24,261 | 15,297 | 1,400 | 428 | | 57,156 | | | Workers New Arrivals‘ | 516 | 458 | 2,392 | 303 | 1,867 | | 5,536 | | | Family | 23,030 | 26,240 | 21,532 | 6,153 | 4,290 | | **81,245** | 56.44% | | Family Adjusted | 22,029 | 25,153 | 15,906 | 5,240 | 501 | | 68,829 | | | Family New Arrival | 1,001 | 1,087 | 5,626 | 913 | 3,789 | | 12,416 | | | | | | | | | | 0 | | | Adjustment of Status | 37,799 | 49,414 | 31,203 | 6,640 | 929 | | **125,985** | 87.53% | | New Arrival | 1,517 | 1,545 | 8,018 | 1,216 | 5,656 | | 17,952 | 12.47% | | | | | | | | | | | | Total | 39,316 | 50,959 | 39,221 | 7,856 | 6,585 | | 143,937 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | EB 1 | EB 2 | EB 3\* | EB 4^ | EB 5~ | | | | | Workers Adjusted | 96.83% | 98.15% | 86.48% | 82.21% | 18.65% | | | | | Worker New Arrivals | 3.17% | 1.85% | 13.52% | 17.79% | 81.35% | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Family Adjusted | 95.65% | 95.86% | 73.87% | 85.16% | 11.68% | | | | | Family New Arrivals | 4.35% | 4.14% | 26.13% | 14.84% | 88.32% | | | | | \*Some data on spouses and children withheld. | | | | | | | ^Some data on spouses, children, and workers withheld. | | | | | | ‘Investors for the EB‑5. | | | | | | | | | ~Some data on spouses, children, and investors withheld. | | | | | | *Source: 2012 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics* | | | | | | [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).