Which U.S. Cities Have the Most Family Green Card Holders?
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For many immigrants with close relatives who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, family-based immigration is one of the main pathways to building a permanent life in the United States. A foreign family member receiving a family-based green card can provide long-term stability, work authorization, greater mobility and a clearer path toward full participation in civic and economic life. Those individual outcomes can also shape the communities where immigrants live: when families are able to remain together and gain permanent legal status, they may be better positioned to work, start businesses, buy homes, pursue education and contribute to local tax bases.
In recent years, the path to permanent residence has become more expensive and administratively complex for many families. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) 2024 fee rule, which took effect April 1, 2024, increased the cost of several immigration filings and changed how some related applications are paid for, including work and travel authorization requests connected to adjustment of status. These pressures are now unfolding alongside new policy signals that may further change how and where family-based green cards are processed.
This analysis—conducted by Manifest Law, a modern immigration firm specializing in employment, family, and extraordinary ability immigration—examines USCIS family-based I-485 and I-130 approval data to identify the cities and states most impacted by the policy shift towards consular green card processing. The findings show which field office areas have stood out, how approvals have varied by location, and what those patterns suggest about the local communities where family-based immigration is most visible.
Here are the key takeaways from the analysis:
- Family green card completions reached record levels, but pending cases also hit a high. USCIS approved 433,071 family-based green card applications in 2025, up 73% from 2015, while denials rose 101% over the same period. Pending applications climbed even faster, up 180% from 2015.
- Family sponsorship accounted for the majority of domestically processed green card approvals. Of the 744,933 green card approvals processed inside the United States in 2025, 433,071, or 58%, were family-based. That was more than humanitarian-based approvals, employment-based approvals, and all other categories combined.
- Floridian applicants stand to be the most impacted by the shift to consular processing. With over 55,000 cases pending, family green card applicants in Florida are left uncertain about their pathway to legal permanent resident status.
- At the local level, pending cases were concentrated in major metro field offices. Texas field offices in Dallas and Houston tallied the most pending family-based green applications, with 12,685 and 12,607, respectively.
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