Do you dream of moving to the United States for good? You have then inevitably heard of the green card, the key to anyone wishing to become a permanent resident in the USA. The holder of a green card is indeed authorized to live and work on American soil, without any restriction… and can obtain American nationality a few years later. However, the course of the candidate for immigration is often long and strewn with pitfalls… all the more so under the new American presidency. Focus on the 3 main ways to get a green card.
1. Obtain the green card through a family tie with an American citizen
Is one of your parents or your spouse American? In certain cases, you can be sponsored by a member of your family in order to obtain a green card for the family reunion. A citizen of the United States over the age of 21 can indeed apply for their spouse, children, parents or siblings. In addition, the holder of a green card can in turn sponsor his spouse or children.
The procedure :
Your U.S. sponsor completes Form I-130 , Immigrant Petition for Alien Relative, and form i131 for travelling, collects all of the required documents. The file along with the registration fee payment ($ 535) must be sent to USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) .
Your sponsor first receives an acknowledgment of receipt and then a notification concerning the decision that will have been taken, once the request has been processed.
2. Obtain the green card thanks to work
Another possibility to win the precious sesame: be sponsored by your employer. But this opportunity is very strictly supervised and controlled, in the same way as obtaining the HB1 work visa, very limited since 2017. The green card is granted as a priority to 5 main categories of profiles:
people with rare and recognized talents in the fields of science, the arts, education, business or sports; to certain high-level teachers and researchers;
to certain executives and business managers (EB1 visa);
highly qualified people or people with exceptional skills (EB2 visa);
professional workers (EB3 visa);
to specific categories of employment (members of the armed forces, international organization, doctor, religious, etc.).
The procedure :
Your employer completes Form I-140 , Immigration Petition for Alien Worker , and collects all the required documents.
The file along with the registration fee payment (USD 700) should be sent to USCIS by post or electronically as appropriate.
Your sponsor first receives an acknowledgment of receipt and then a notification concerning the decision that will have been taken, once the request has been processed. If the file is accepted, the NVC ( National Visa Center ) will tell you the procedure to follow for the immigration visa application.
3. Winning the Green Card Lottery
The lottery is certainly the most popular way to get a green card. Each year, the United States allows 55,000 immigrant applicants to obtain a green card through the Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery . Despite the presidential announcements evoking its removal, its 2020 edition has nevertheless taken place: it was open from October 3, 2018 to November 6, 2018.
This lottery is reserved for nationals of countries whose immigration quotas to the USA are the lowest. The list of countries whose nationals cannot participate in the green card lottery is therefore changing every year.
The procedure :
Register through www.dvlottery.state.gov . Please note that each year you can only participate in the lottery during a specific period.
Keep the confirmation number received so that you can later check whether or not you have been selected.
If you have been selected, you will then be able to apply for an immigration visa.
To learn more about the American green card:
Visit the US Department of State website as well as the USCIS website.
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