Wait time for permanent residency and the retention of immigrant doctoral recipients in the U.S.

More than 65% of foreign doctoral recipients remain and work in the U.S. after graduation. Using data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates, the Survey of Doctoral Recipients, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), this paper estimates the impact of wait time for permanent residency (Green Card status) on the migration decisions of foreign doctoral recipients graduating from U.S. universities. Results indicate that for a recent immigrant doctoral recipient, an additional year of wait time decreases the probability that he or she will remain in the U.S. by 5.5 percentage points. I also find that the negative impact of wait time on immigrant retention in the U.S. is temporary: Five years after graduation, there is no difference in retention between foreign doctoral recipients who faced long Green Card wait times and those who faced none.