zlacker

"Many of my European colleagues have expressed a desire to move back to Europe soon (...) A particular sacrifice that comes to mind is their spouse being able to work - the Green Card process has been a shit show lately"

As another European immigrant, I can give you my perspective. Initially I was apprehensive about my wife not being able to work.

In practice, it was less than a year from the moment she arrived until she got an EAD card (work authorization after reaching a certain stage in the green card application). Certainly a sacrifice, but looking back it was worth it.

The green card process took ~1.5 years in total (received it early 2017), which pales in comparison to what people from China and (especially) India have to go through. Did it become much worse in the last year?

>>pedros+(OP)
Yes. Current waiting times for the final step of the process is 12+ months (it was ~2 months before the current administration according to lawyers). I am currently 2.5+ years in, and late spring/early summer would be the best case scenario according to the lawyers handling it. Same for several of my coworkers. I work at a large, well known tech company.

>>GuiA+I1
It's never been 2 months for 485 maybe apart from exceptional cases. 6 months was possible though.