Technically the process can be started before a candidate is even in the US or finished entirely before they arrive. As someone going through the process right

Technically the process can be started before a candidate is even in the US or finished entirely before they arrive. As someone going through the process right now, PERM is taking on average 12 months and the PWD has taken 6 months. A request for evidence on PERM will extend that to 18 months on average and I-1485 is closer to 12 months but can be 18-24 months even if you are not from India/China. Abolishing the country cap for Green Cards is something that should be done in tandem with either increasing the number of Employment Based Greencards or recapturing those that have been abandoned. Otherwise you just make the backlog everyone country's problem. There are some steps they could take to make things easier like automatically sending EAP and AP when a I-140 is approved. It's ridiculous that these documents take so long to be issued. Really though the United States should move to a points based system for Employment Immigration. If you look at EB3 it's a low bar compared to Canada/Australia. A points based system that is fast tracked like Canada's would be preferred to convoluted mess we have today.