The U visa is given to those who are victims of certain crimes. Congress created the U nonimmigrant visa with the passage of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (including the Battered Immigrant Women’s Protection Act) in October 2000. The legislation was intended to strengthen the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking of aliens and other crimes while, at the same time, offer protection to victims of such crimes. The legislation also helps law enforcement agencies to better serve victims of crimes. 

While the visa has been a blessing for many, the fact that only 10,000 are issued, with around 50,000 applications a year has created a huge backlog for those who are waiting for this visa. See quarterly U visa (form I-918) data chart from USCIS released on Number of Form I-918, Petition for U Nonimmigrant Status by Fiscal Year, Quarter, and Case Status Fiscal Years 2009-2020 

Based on this chart, it seems that applicants of U visas will have to wait around 5 to 6 years to obtain a work permit aka Employment Authorization Document (EAD) unless they get a conditional work permit. This is usually decided under a case-by-case basis. It takes more than 7/8 years currently and it will take more than 10 years just to approve the U visa if the USCIS/government does not take the appropriate action to manage the U visa backlog.  Below link shows the report submitted by Director of USICS to the Congressmen on Humanitarian petitions: U Visa Program 
https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/reports/USCIS-Humanitarian-Petitions.pdf 

If we see the above report this U Visa program was started in 2007 and if we observe the stats the processing times for it have increased drastically due to substantial number of applicants reporting crimes every year.  
One of the reasons and problems to reduce the processing times listed by USCIS Director in the above link is issuance of U Visa every year which is at 10000 cap currently. In fact, it is listed in that report as the first problem which can reduce the processing times to a great extent.  

On June 14th, 2021, USCIS introduced Bonafide Determination policy. USCIS anticipates this new policy will expedite the adjudication process of the U Visa. But as for now, it has been 5 months and we did not see a major change in adjudication process of the U Visa except for the 4 years BFD EAD issuance instead of 2 years of Deferred action issued earlier. There is hardly any change in the processing times of I-918. The I-918 processing times are currently stalled by USCIS and will be released by 1st of Jan 2022.  

We request USCIS DHS, Congressman, and senators to increase the U Visa Cap from 10000 to 30000 at-lest per year. This combined with Bonafide determination process will resolve the current backlog in the U Visa which has reached 200 K now.  

We also know that currently Vermont Service center and Nebraska Service center are the only centers working on U Visa. Inclusion of one more service center like Texas service center or Potomac service center can also speed up the processing times. As for the year 2020, which is affected by Pandemic and USICS operations were at minimum during this year, U Visa processing times are affected by this.  
In the link above the report also states that USICS is answering written queries within 30 days (about 4 and a half weeks). Which is not true in the case of U Visa applicants? Most of the queries are never answered and are ignored.  
One of the requirements of U Visa program is the applicant needed to stay in US and support Law enforcement whenever and wherever they require. The applicants are nonimmigrants and are hesitant in traveling outside the US once they initiated the U Visa application process.  

Considering all the above issues, problems faced by the U Visa applicants, we request Congress to increase the cap of U Visa from 10000 to 30000 per year and if possible, allocate an extra USCIS service center to adjudicate U Visa program, apart from Vermont & Nebraska. The US government along with the President and Vice President need to serious about the U visa backlog.