Usa Green Card Lottery
Usa Green Card Lottery
A United States Permanent Resident Card , also known as a green card (due to its color in the earlier versions), is an identification card attesting to the permanent resident status of an alien in the United States of America. Green card also refers to an immigration process of becoming a permanent resident. The green card serves as proof that its holder, a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR), has been officially granted immigration benefits, which include permission to reside and take employment in the USA. The holder must maintain permanent resident status, and can be removed from the US if certain conditions of this status are not met.
Green cards were formerly issued by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). During a re-organization process, that agency was absorbed into and replaced by the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS), part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Shortly after that re-organization, BCIS was renamed to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which still retains the responsibility for issuing green cards.
An alien with a green card application can obtain two important permits while the case is pending after a certain stage is passed in green card processing (filing of I-485). The first is a temporary work permit known as the Employment Authorization Document (EAD), which allows the alien to take employment in the United States. The second is a temporary travel document, advance parole, which allows the alien to re-enter the United States. Both permits confer benefits that are independent of any existing status granted to the alien. For example, the alien might already have permission to work in the United States under an H-1B visa.
Reading a Permanent Resident Card
Most of the information on the card is self-evident. The computer and human readable signature at the bottom is not. The format is (digit range: expected data (information contained)):
- First line:
- Second line:
- Third line:
A full list of category codes (i.e. IR1, E21, etc.) can be found in the Federal Register.
Path to U.S. citizenship
A Lawful Permanent Resident can apply for United States citizenship, or naturalization, after five years of residency. This period is shortened to three years if married to a U.S. citizen, or four years if permanent residency was received through asylum. Lawful Permanent Residents may submit their applications for naturalization as much as 90 days before meeting the residency requirement. Citizens are entitled to more rights (and obligations) than permanent residents (who are still classified as aliens in this respect). Lawful Permanent Residents generally do not have the right to vote, the right to be elected in federal and state elections, the ability to bring family members to the United States (permanent residents are allowed to sponsor certain family members, but this is often not practical due to long approval delays), or eligibility for federal government jobs. Male permanent residents between the ages of 18 and 26 are subject to registering in the Selective Service System. Permanent residents who reside in the US must pay taxes on their worldwide income, like U.S. citizens. Certain conditions that may put a permanent resident in deportation proceedings do not apply to U.S. citizens.
Types of immigration
U.S. immigration legislation in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) stipulates that an alien may obtain permanent resident status primarily through the course of the following proceedings:
- immigration through a family member
- immigration through employment
- immigration through investment
- immigration through the Diversity Lottery
- immigration through Refugee or Asylum status
- immigration through "The Registry" provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act
Immigration eligibility and quotas
Application process
An immigrant usually has to go through a three-step process to get permanent residency. The whole process may take several years, depending on the type of immigrant category and the country of birth.
- Immigrant Petition – in the first step, USCIS approves the immigrant petition by a qualifying relative, an employer, or in rare cases, such as with an investor visa, the applicant himself. If a sibling is applying, she or he must have the same parents as the applicant.
- Immigrant Visa Availability – in the second step, unless the applicant is an "immediate relative", an immigrant visa number through the National Visa Center (NVC) of the United States Department of State (DOS) must be available. A visa number might not be immediately available even if the USCIS approves the petition, because the amount of immigrant visa numbers is limited every year by quotas set in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). There are also certain additional limitations by country of birth. Thus, most immigrants will be placed on lengthy waiting lists. Those immigrants who are immediate relatives of a U.S. citizen (spouses and children under 21 years of age, and parents of a US citizen who is 21 years of age or older) are not subject to these quotas and may proceed to the next step immediately (since they qualify for the IR immigrant category).
-
Immigrant Visa Adjudication
– in the third step, if an immigrant visa number becomes available, the applicant must either apply with USCIS to adjust their current status to permanent resident status or apply with the DOS for an immigrant visa at the nearest US consulate before being allowed to come to the United States.
- Adjustment of Status (AOS) – Adjustment of status is submitted to USCIS via form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status . The USCIS conducts a series of background checks (including fingerprinting for FBI criminal background check and name checks) and makes a decision on the application. Once the adjustment of status application is accepted, the alien is allowed to stay in the United States even if the original period of authorized stay on the Form I-94 is expired, but he is not allowed to leave the country until the application is approved or rejected. If the alien has to leave the United States during this time, he/she can apply for travel documents at the USCIS with form I-131, also called Advance Parole . If there is a potential risk that the applicant's work permit (visa) will expire or become invalid (laid off by the employer and visa sponsor) or the applicant wants to start working in the United States, while he/she is waiting for the decision about his/her application to change status, he/she can file form I-765, to get Employment Authorization Documents (also called EAD ) and be able to continue or start working legally in the United States. In some cases, the applicant will be interviewed at a USCIS office. If the application is approved, the alien becomes an LPR, and the actual green card is mailed to the alien's last known mailing address.
- Consular Processing – this is an alternative to AOS, but still requires the immigrant visa petition to be completed. If the applicant is outside of the USA (or selects this option instead of AOS), he/she may make an appointment at the U.S. embassy or consulate in his/her home country, where a consular officer adjudicates the case. If the case is approved, an immigrant visa is issued by the U.S. embassy or consulate. The visa entitles the holder to travel to the U.S. as an immigrant. At the port of entry, the immigrant visa holder is processed for a permanent resident card and receives an I-551 stamp in his/her passport. The permanent resident card is mailed to his/her US address within several weeks.
Application process for family-sponsored visa
Green card holders and families
Green card holders married to non-U.S. citizens are able to legally bring their spouses and minor children to join them in the USA. The foreign spouse of a green card holder must wait for approval of an 'immigrant visa' from the State Department before entering the United States. Due to numerical limitation on the number of these visas, the current wait time for approval is four to five years for all non-retrogressed countries (including Western Europe), and many more for the retrogressed countries. In the interim, the spouse cannot be legally present in the United States (let alone work), unless she secures a visa for herself using some other means. However, securing such a visa is usually difficult (and nearly-impossible at US embassies in some countries). This is because the spouse has to overcome presumed immigrant intent in order to qualify for a non-immigrant (or tourist) visa, a position at odds with her or his marriage to a US green card holder. Due to the long wait and the immigration intent issues, many green card holder opt to wait to become US citizens (usually 5 years), and only then sponsor their spouses and children (the process is much faster for US Citizens). This, however, imposes a
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