EB-2 India wait:
decades
— UK ILR: 3 years.

CATO Institute's 2020 modelling combined the 7% per-country cap (an artefact of the Immigration Act of 1990) with applicant-pool growth to project that newly-filed EB-2 India petitioners face wait times of 100+ years at then-current numerical-limit pacing. Subsequent Visa Bulletins haven't materially improved that projection — EB-2 India advance has been measured in days per month, occasionally years per year, and EB-1 India has retrogressed in 2023-2024.

The structural issue is that the 7% per-country cap is applied per-fiscal-year to an annual issuance pool of about 140,000 employment-based green cards. Indian-born applicants vastly exceed 7% of demand in EB-2 / EB-3, so the queue fills faster than it drains. There is no executive or administrative remedy that works under current statute; meaningful change would require Congressional action.

UK Global Talent has no equivalent mechanism. There is no per-country cap, no priority date, no Visa Bulletin. Endorsement is decided on individual evidence and the visa is issued in weeks. ILR is achieved on a calendar-based clock independent of demand. For an Indian-born applicant the difference is decisive — the UK route is structurally orders of magnitude faster.

Most EB-2-backlogged applicants don't want to permanently close the US chapter, particularly if family or property obligations are still there. The good news is that Global Talent doesn't require you to. You can file UK Stage 1 + Stage 2 entirely from your US address, on H-1B status. The UK visa-vignette is stamped at a US Visa Application Centre.

If you're maintaining H-1B during the transition: keep the I-140 active, keep the H-1B-sponsoring employer relationship in good standing, and time the actual UK relocation around H-1B / I-94 / I-485 milestones. Some applicants stay on H-1B remotely from the UK for the first few months while their US employer sets up an EOR (employer-of-record) or terminates payroll cleanly.

If your I-485 is pending: leaving the US without Advance Parole is treated as abandonment. If you have AP, you can technically travel; but the moment you cease to be 'physically present' in the US for AOS purposes, the petition is at risk. The cleanest sequencing is: file UK Stage 1, get endorsement, file UK Stage 2, complete AOS interview if scheduled before relocation OR formally withdraw AOS, then relocate.

If you're at the 6-year H-1B cap: AC21 H-1B extensions require an approved I-140 from any employer. If your I-140 is approved, you can extend in 1- or 3-year increments while pursuing UK. If H-1B's 6-year clock is genuinely running out and there's no I-140 buffer, Global Talent is often the cleanest exit ramp.

Aging-out is the unspoken accelerator for many EB-2-backlogged families with teenage children. H-4 dependants lose status when they turn 21 unless they qualify for an independent visa. The CSPA (Child Status Protection Act) freezes age in some scenarios but is incomplete coverage; many H-4 children effectively have to leave or convert to F-1 around age 21.

UK Global Talent treats dependants as a household. Children under 18 are added to the family application; once granted, they ride the family ILR clock. At 3 years (Talent / academic) or 5 years (Promise) the entire household achieves ILR, and the children's settlement status is no longer dependent on the parent's visa. From there, naturalisation in another 12 months is a household decision, not an aged-out scramble.

Practically: a 14-year-old who arrives on Global Talent dependant status reaches ILR around age 17 (3-year route) or age 19 (5-year route), and qualifies for British citizenship around age 18 or 20. Their education is on UK state-school rates throughout, university tuition is at home-fee rates after 3 years' residence, and they don't face the post-21 visa cliff that H-4 imposes.

The biggest under-discussed implication of moving to the UK on Global Talent for an EB-2-backlogged Indian or Chinese applicant: it's not just an exit — it's a green-card upgrade if you ever come back. The H-1B → EB-2 / EB-3 path is structurally bad because the per-country cap creates a multi-decade queue. L-1A → EB-1C is an entirely different category, with much shorter waits, and the qualifying clock starts the day you join the UK arm of a multinational employer on Global Talent.

How L-1A works. The L-1A visa is for intracompany transferees in managerial or executive capacities. Its core requirement is that you've worked for the same multinational employer (or a qualifying parent / subsidiary / branch / affiliate) for at least 1 year out of the last 3 years, in a managerial or executive role, outside the US. There is no annual cap, no lottery, no per-country quota. The minimum qualifying period is 1 year — meaning 12 months on Global Talent at the UK arm of a multinational makes you L-1A-eligible. From a US-employer perspective, L-1A is one of the cleanest visas to file because it relies on existing corporate structure rather than a cap-subject petition.

Why EB-1C beats EB-2 for backlogged applicants. EB-1C (Multinational Manager or Executive) is the green-card category that follows L-1A. It's an EB-1 category — the highest employment-based preference. EB-1 has more favourable per-country cap behaviour than EB-2 / EB-3. As of recent Visa Bulletins, EB-1 India is current or close to current; EB-2 India is queued out by 10+ years. EB-1 China has retrogressed less than EB-2 China. For an India- or China-born applicant chronically stuck in EB-2, EB-1C via L-1A is typically years to a decade faster.

What this looks like sequenced. Year 0: file UK Global Talent endorsement, leave H-1B, relocate to the UK and join (or stay at) the UK arm of a multinational employer in a managerial / executive role. Year 1: qualifying L-1A service is complete. The UK arm or the US-side employer can now sponsor an L-1A transfer if and when you decide to return; alternatively you stay in the UK and let the option sit. Year 1+: if returning, file L-1A and concurrently file EB-1C — for India-born applicants this typically issues a green card in 1-3 years rather than 10+. Year 3 (Talent / academic) or Year 5 (Promise): you also have UK ILR. If you've executed the L-1A / EB-1C path in parallel, you end up with both UK permanent residence and US permanent residence.

The wider career upside. A year (or more) at the UK arm of a multinational typically gives you P&L exposure, European-market experience, and a cross-border network that's directly valuable for senior-leader hiring on both sides of the Atlantic. The 'international experience' line on a senior CV is now table-stakes at staff+ engineering, GM, and VP roles in US tech. You also unlock SEIS / EIS investor incentives if you become a UK-tax-resident founder during the qualifying period — structurally more equity-friendly than the US equivalent.

Caveats. L-1A and EB-1C both require genuine managerial or executive duties — not 'tech lead with no direct reports'. Job title alone won't satisfy USCIS scrutiny; the petition needs evidence of actual people management, P&L responsibility, or executive-level decision-making. Senior ICs can take L-1B (specialised knowledge) or EB-2 NIW instead, but those routes don't have EB-1C's per-country-cap advantage and put backlogged applicants back in the EB-2 queue. The qualifying employer also needs a real US presence — most large tech, finance, pharma, and consulting multinationals do; some UK-only scaleups don't, and joining one would burn the L-1 option. If keeping the US return path open matters, optimise for: (a) employer with US operations, (b) role with managerial / executive substance, and (c) clean documentation of duties from day one.

Decision frame. If you're an EB-2-backlogged Indian engineer in your 30s with school-age children, the optimal move sequence is often: Global Talent now (insurance against the EB queue and aging-out), 1-2 years at the UK arm of a multinational (qualifying for L-1A and building European exposure), then a deliberate decision year about whether to take the L-1A → EB-1C path back to the US or naturalise in the UK. Few visa stacks unlock that level of optionality. The 'permanent residence in two countries' outcome is rare — but the L-1A / EB-1C return path makes it a realistic medium-term plan rather than a fantasy.

Headline UK tech salaries are lower than FAANG-US, but the comparison gets distorted when you reduce both sides to take-home. The UK has higher marginal income tax (45% top rate) but no FICA / Medicare equivalents in the same form. NHS replaces US private health insurance entirely (typically $20-30k/year for a family in the US is now £0 marginal, plus IHS already paid). UK state schools are free K-13. UK universities charge home-fee rates after 3 years' residence (typically £9,250/year vs $40-80k US private).

Equity comp is the wild card. Public US tech companies with UK offices often equalise to ~70% of US cash but maintain US RSU rates and grants — net comp at staff+ levels can be within 10-20% of US once you adjust for COL and tax. Private companies usually compress more. Founders are typically better off in the UK once SEIS / EIS investor incentives are factored in.

Property: London is expensive but more transparent than the US. Buying typically requires 2-year UK income history; renting in central London at ~£2,500-4,000/month is comparable to NYC / SF. Outside London, the maths is dramatically more favourable — Cambridge, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Bristol all support staff-engineer salaries against half the housing cost.