I met two families in the US before. They got GC in recent 3 years.
The first family (a couple) came from Taiwan. They were family relative based immigrants-the hu*****and's brother/sister (working in the US) sponsored them and had waited in Taiwan for around 10 years. Because they had waited too long time and they have no special skills to support their living in the US. The hu*****ands brothers and sisters had changed their idea and pursuaded this family to give up the immigration application. The couple got GC at last at their 50s. No jobs. They told me the next thing is to apply immigration for their adult childern from Taiwan--who knows how many years.
The second family: a couple at 50s. Illegally worked in South Korea years, then moved to Canada (don't know legal or not), smuggling from Canada to the US in 1998 and worked illegally in an asian restaurant. Got GCs in 2004 based on some Bill (241i?). This family's case is even more fast than many legal immigrants.
No more words.