America’s Documented Dreamer Crisis

Pragnya Vella

Edited by Jordan Perlman, Cheng Mou (Momo) Chen, Judge Baskin, and Sahith Mocharla

Laurens Van Beek immigrated to the United States when he was a child. At just seven years old, his family fled the Netherlands in search of a safer life after crime started to rise in his hometown. He was raised in Iowa City, Iowa where he spent his childhood lowering the American flag after crosswalk duty and dreaming of a future in medicine. After earning a degree in biomedical research, he received an offer at a cutting-edge lab at the peak of the pandemic to contribute to COVID-19 diagnostic research, contributing precisely when the nation needed his skills most. Yet the day Laurens graduated from college, he was forced to hinge his future on a visa lottery. When his name was not drawn, Laurens had to condense a decade of his life into two suitcases and board the next flight to the Netherlands, a country he hadn’t set foot in since he was a child [1].

Laurens’ situation is far from unique, for 250,000 other immigrants his story is an all too familiar tale for anyone experienced with United States’ immigration. The United States’ current immigration system limits immigrants from any single nation to no more than 7% of total available employment-based green cards a year [2]. For populous countries such as India and China, this creates a large disparity in wait times. Indian immigrants on employment-based visas can wait up to 134 years for a green card––a timeline so extreme that most applicants will never live to see permanent residency [3]. Particularly, this poses an issue for immigrant children, who come to the country as H-4 dependents on their parents’ working visas. While they grow up alongside American citizens on American soil, the American Dream remains out of reach for them. If they are not granted a green card by the time they are 21 years old, these ‘Documented Dreamers’ are forced to self-deport to a country that many of them have no memories of. This system not only harms young adults––who are American in every way except for on paper––but also undermines the American economy that these immigrants were ostensibly brought to bolster. 

The Immigration Act of 1990 introduced the current H-1B visa system to attract highly skilled workers from foreign nations, particularly in fields such as engineering, technology, and medicine, to maintain the country’s industrial competitive advantage [4]. The H-1B visa lasts three years and may be renewed when it expires through the U.S. visa lottery. The number of annual H-1B visas issued is capped at 65,000, with an additional 20,000 reserved for immigrants who hold advanced U.S. degrees [5]. The legislation also imposes a cap per-country, allotting each country no more than 7% of total visas. This per-country limit was intended to prevent any single nation from dominating the U.S. labor market, ensuring that opportunities were spread evenly among foreign nations. 

The government found that these valuable immigrants were more likely to come to the U.S. if their immediate family members were welcome to accompany them [6]. For this reason, Congress also established a dependent visa, the H-4 visa, under the Immigration Act of 1990, to allow spouses and children under 21 of the H-1B holder to live in the United States with them. Although these children are not U.S. citizens, they are raised entirely in the United States, attending local schools, speaking English as their primary language, and immersing themselves in American culture. As they grow older, immigrants under an H-4 visa can achieve permanent residency in three ways: marry an American citizen, get an EB5 visa by investing over a million dollars in a U.S. company, or if your parent or spouse on an H-1B visa receives their green card. When an H-4 visa holder’s parent applies for a green card, the dependent enters the queue with them, tied to their parent’s place in the waiting line for permanent residency. However, this status is conditional on the dependent’s age. If a child dependent does not receive their green card by the time they are 21, they age out of their H-4 status [7]. The most common route at that point is to switch to an international student visa, such as a J-1 or F-1 visa, if they are enrolled in a postsecondary institution. This transition, however, means that they lose the spot in the green card line that they’ve held (as a dependent) since they were brought to the country as a child, and they must start the application process all over again. And so, upon graduating college, they must either enter the H-1B visa lottery themselves or self-deport to their country of origin.

Asian countries account for the majority of these H-4 visas, with 86% of H-4 visa holders being from India, primarily due to their larger population [8]. Because of this, the per-country green card cap asymmetrically hits Indian nationals, creating a massive backlog for these applicants. Immigrants from countries with a lower population might receive their green card within a few years, but for Indian nationals that wait time stretches to over a century. By 2030, the green card backlog for Indian nationals is projected to reach over one million, taking over 195 years to eliminate completely [9]. This uneven distribution of opportunity creates a system that undermines the principle of equal access by penalizing applicants from populous countries in more ways than one. 

Despite contributing to their communities, paying taxes, and following the law the same as their American-born peers, Documented Dreamers are denied the American Dream in every way before being forced out of the country at 21. If they choose to leave the United States at any point, their temporary status presents a risk of being denied returning home. Because the H-4 is a nonimmigrant visa, it does not guarantee reentry into the U.S. for its holder. Each time a dependent leaves the country, they must obtain a new visa at a U.S. consulate abroad. Processing can take anywhere from 30 to 90 days, and in some cases even longer, leaving families separated across oceans. As a result, Documented Dreamers seldom leave the U.S. to visit family members in their birth country, and cannot participate in crucial educational and professional development opportunities like school trips out of the country or study abroad programs. 

Their opportunities within the United States are severely limited in multiple ways as well, most notably when it comes to higher education. Many U.S. colleges do not offer merit or need based aid to international students. An even greater number of colleges are need-aware for international students, as opposed to need-blind for domestic students, meaning that if a student applies for financial aid, it makes it substantially more difficult to gain admission. Documented Dreamers cannot turn to private scholarships either, because many of them require permanent residency. Though their parents pay taxes the same as any state citizen, Documented Dreamers are denied access to in-state tuition in many states. This is not a minor difference–the average cost of an undergraduate degree in the U.S. is $11,610 in-state versus $30,780 out-of-state, meaning that Documented Dreamers have to pay three times the tuition [10]. This matter isn’t decided by each college, but primarily determined at the state level. The government doesn’t offer Documented Dreamers aid either, excluding them from FAFSA [11]. Even student loans are unavailable to these students, as the majority of private and federal loans require citizenship. Even if a Documented Dreamer manages to find some financial aid despite these restrictions, they will likely lose that financial support when they are forced to switch to an international student visa at the age of 21. Because Documented Dreamers reside in the country legally, they do not qualify for Dream Act or DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), a program protecting undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children [12]. While many programs, scholarships, and colleges make exceptions for DACA recipients, they do not extend these exceptions to Documented Dreamers. This creates barriers that prevent Documented Dreamers from accessing higher education, as they are not able to pay for college tuition through part-time jobs, scholarships, and student loans. Young people who followed every legal pathway available to them are afforded fewer educational protections than those who entered or remained in the country without legal status. While DACA recipients are often granted access to in-state tuition, scholarships, and institutional protections, Documented Dreamers are excluded from these same opportunities despite their lawful status. 

The consequences extend beyond individual students. The U.S. spends an average of $17,000 per student annually for their K-12 education, investing in future talent [13]. Documented Dreamers embody this potential, with over 90% of them growing up to fill crucial roles as highly skilled doctors, engineers, and computer scientists. They bolster the country’s competitive advantage in everything from artificial intelligence development to biomedical research [14]. But just as they enter the workforce to give back to their communities and give the United States a return on its investment, they are forced to self-deport. With this cycle, the U.S. is not only wasting taxpayer dollars but giving away American talent to other countries. The Cato institute estimates that each Documented Dreamer, around 250,000 in total, yields an estimated net present value of $252,000 [15]. That means that the United States is losing, roughly, $63 trillion dollars over their (lost) lifetime’s—about ten years worth of Germany’s current annual GDP [16]. 

The outdated immigration quotas that result in these issues have not been updated since 1990, despite the fact that since their introduction the number of immigrants entering the United States each year has increased by over 30% since then, while the economy has more than doubled. However, lawmakers’ proposed changes may light a path forward. 

The first attempt at change was the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (AC21) [17]. Due to a systemic error in the immigration system, the government does not roll over unused green cards to the next year and instead wastes them. The AC21 in 2000 aimed to recapture those unused green cards and give them to people who needed them in the next year. The bill was successful and implemented a one-time recapture of 130,039 green cards that went unused from 1999 to 2000. Similarly, The REAL ID Act of 2005 recaptured 50,000 green cards, though the act made them available only for nurses. Despite the initial successes in expanding the number of available green cards and reducing backlogs for employment-based applicants in the early 2000s, no similar efforts have been successful since 2005 [18]. The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, introduced in the House by Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) and in the Senate by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), similarly proposed recapturing 940,000 green cards. It was introduced early in the Biden administration as part of a broad immigration reform package, but it never advanced through Congress and was the last of its kind. The economic impact of these policies would’ve been incredible: recapturing 231,000 unused employment-based green cards could add $216 billion to GDP over ten years, while recapturing 940,000 employment-based and family-preference green cards could add $815 billion [19].

In the same vein, The Fairness for Highly Skilled Immigrants Act aimed to eliminate birth country caps and instead prioritize green card applications by their application date. The goal was to ensure fairness without increasing the total green cards given out by creating equal wait times regardless of national origin. If implemented, this reform would have significantly reduced the long wait times faced by Indian nationals. Congress introduced the bill to the House in 2007 and, after years of debates over the bill’s implications on diversity, passed the House and Senate in 2020 [20]. Still, some members of Congress stood by their argument that this would decrease diversity in H-1B visas. Because of debate, the House and Senate each passed different versions of this bill and never reconsolidated before the end of the 116^th Congress. 

Regardless of the bill’s failure in 2020, some provisions of the Fairness for Highly Skilled Immigrants Act were carried over into the EAGLE Act of 2022, which aimed to raise per-country cap for family based green cards from 7% to 15% [21]. However, Congress pulled it from the House floor in December of 2022 because it didn't receive enough support. Again, opponents did not want to reduce diversity in H-1B holders, and also didn’t want to increase the number of immigrants in the United States overall. Though, it can be said that this view is narrowly focused on the applicant pool rather than American society as a whole. Expanding pathways to citizenship promotes diversity on a broader scale by allowing the naturalization of highly skilled immigrants from populous countries who are minorities in the U.S.

The current push for reform for Documented Dreamers is the America’s Children Act, originally introduced in 2021 by Representative Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) and Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.). The bill would provide protections for individuals who (1) came to the U.S. under dependent legal status on a parent’s working visa, (2) have maintained legal status in the U.S. for at least ten years, and (3) have graduated from an institution of higher education. Under the bill, Documented Dreamers would be allowed to remain on dependent status after turning 21 until they obtain another legal status. The bill would also freeze the priority date of their parents’ green card application, rather than forcing the Documented Dreamer to reenter the green card line from the date they file for an H-1B visa after graduating college. Finally, the America’s Children Act would provide work authorization for individuals who meet these criteria. However, this bill comes with the major limitation of only protecting those who have graduated from an institution of higher education. Therefore, high school-aged Documented Dreamers will still be at a disadvantage when it comes to educational opportunities and college scholarships. Representative Ross and Senator Padilla previously introduced this bill in 2021 and 2023, and after failing to get passed, they introduced it in the House in September of 2025 [22].

The stories of Laurens Van Beek and countless other Documented Dreamers across the country underscore the consequences of this flaw in our law. Rather than celebrating and appreciating some of our country’s best and brightest young Americans, the United States immigration system undermines them by restricting their access to opportunities for higher education and career advancement, financial security, and remaining in their home countries after they turn 21. Through the America’s Children Act, policymakers can take a meaningful step toward change, expanding work eligibility, preventing self-deportation, and creating a real path to citizenship for H-4 dependents from populous countries. Through comprehensive change, the U.S. can embrace the talent it nurtures, instead of letting it walk out the door. 

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[1] U.S. Senate Committee On The Budget, Testimony of Laurens van Beek (Sep. 13 2023),

https://www.budget.senate.gov/download/l-van-beek-testimony-913.

[2] Moriarty Andrew, Per-Country Cap Reform - Priority Bill Spotlight, FWD.us (Dec. 5, 2023), https://www.fwd.us/news/per-country-cap-reform-priority-bill-spotlight/.

[3] Moodie Alison, Indian Workers Face Up to 134-Year Wait For a Green Card, Boundless (Aug. 9, 2024), 

https://www.boundless.com/blog/indians-face-134-year-wait-employment-based-green-card.

[4] Immigration Act of 1990, S.358, 101st Cong. (1990).

[5] American Immigration Council, The H-1B Visa Program and Its Impact on the U.S. Economy, www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org (Sep. 22, 2025),

https://live-americanimmigrationcouncilorg.pantheonsite.io/fact-sheet/h1b-visa-program-fact-sheet/. 

[6] American Immigration Council, The H-4 Visa Classification, www.americanimmigration

council.org (Mar. 26, 2018),

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/fact-sheet/h-4-visa-classification/. 

[7] Singh Surbhi Gloria, H-4 kids of Indian H-1B workers face US visa expiry at 21: What next?, Business Standard (Apr. 28, 2025 8:17AM),

https://www.business-standard.com/immigration/h-4-kids-of-indian-h-1b-workers-face-us-visa-expiry-at-21-what-next-125042800086_1.html.

[8] See [6]

[9] Moodie Alison, More than 1 Million Indians Stuck in Employment Green Card Backlog, Boundless (Mar. 7, 2025), 

https://www.boundless.com/blog/1-million-indians-stuck-green-card-backlog.

[10] In-State vs. Out-of-State Tuition: Costs, Rules, Savings, https://www.bestcolleges.com/resources/in-state-vs-out-of-state-tuition/

[11] American Immigration Council, Documented Dreamers: An Overview, www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org (Nov. 18, 2024),

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/fact-sheet/documented-dreamers-overview/.

[12] Hanson Melanie, U.S. Public Education Spending Statistics [2025]: Per Pupil + Total, Education Data Initiative (Feb. 8, 2025),

https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statistics. 

[13] Representative Deborah Ross, America’s Children Act: Efforts to Protect “Documented Dreamers,”, ross.house.gov (Jun. 20, 2023), https://ross.house.gov/2023/6/america-s-children-act-efforts-to-protect-documented-dreamers. 

[14] American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act of 2000, S.2045, 106th Cong. (Oct. 17, 2000)

[15] David J. Bier, Huge Fiscal Benefits of Including Legal Immigrant Dreamers in the DREAM Act, Cato Institute(Oct. 23, 2017), https://www.cato.org/blog/huge-fiscal-benefits-including-legal-immigrant-dreamers-dream-act.

[16] World Bank Open Data, World Bank Open Data (Feb. 2026), https://data.worldbank.org.

[17] Jeremy L. Neufeld, Lindsay Milliken & Doug Rand, STOP THE INCINERATOR: The High Cost of Green Card Slots Going Unused and the Benefits of Recapturing Them (2021), https://www.niskanencenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/5Niskananpaper-5.pdf.

[18] REAL ID Act of 2005, H.R.418, 109th Cong. (2005)

[19] Arturo Castellanos-Canales, Fact Sheet: Unused Green Card Recapture, National Immigration Forum (Oct. 1, 2021), https://forumtogether.org/article/fact-sheet-unused-green-card-recapture/.

[20] high Skilled Per Country Level Elimination Act, H.R.5921, 110th Cong. (2008)

[21] EAGLE Act of 2022, H.R.3648, 117th Cong. (2022)

[22] America’s CHILDREN Act of 2021, H.R.4331, 117th Cong. (2021)