How to Get a Green Card

Publication Date April 2008

Edition 8

ISBN 9781413308525

Pages 304 pp

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Description

Applying for a U.S. green card? Read this book first!

The U.S. immigration system is an enormous bureaucracy. It’s vital that you understand all the requirements for getting a green card before starting your application – making a mistake can ruin your chances.

Fortunately, How to Get a Green Card provides everything you need to understand whether you're eligible, and then make it through the bureaucratic maze. Find out how to work with U.S. officials, how to prepare and present the right documents, and what to expect every step of the way.

Learn the quickest way to get a green card through:

parents, siblings and adult children
spouses and fiancés
green card lotteries
political asylum or refugee status
and other categories

The 8th edition is completely revised to reflect the latest application procedures, laws and fees. It also shows how to find the latest required forms online, and provides filled-out sample forms.

This book is not appropriate for those seeking work-related green cards.

Your Immigration Companion

A. Types of Green Cards We Cover
B. How Much You Can Do Without a Lawyer
C. Using This Book

1. Immigration Then and Now

A. America’s Earliest Settlers
B. Early Immigration Restrictions
C. Today’s Immigration Laws
D. Looking Forward

2. All the Ways to Get a Green Card

A. Family-Based Relationships
B. Employment-Based Relationships
C. Special Immigrants
D. Entrepreneur Immigrants
E. Asylum and Refugee Status
F. Diversity Visa Lottery
G. Amnesties

3. Short-Term Alternatives to a Green Card

A. How Do Foreigners Enter the United States?
B. Types of Visas
C. Tourists Who Can Visit Without a Visa
D. The Importance of Staying Legal
E. How to Extend a Visitor Visa
F. Changing Your Reason for Staying
G. What to Do If Your Application Is Denied
H. Tips on Filling Out Form I-539

4. Will Inadmissibility Bar You From Getting a Green Card?

A. What Is Inadmissibility?
B. The Possibility of Waiving Inadmissibility
C. Reversing an Inadmissibility Finding
D. Most Troublesome Grounds of Inadmissibility

5. How Long You’ll Have to Wait

A. Immediate Relatives of U.S. Citizens: No Waiting
B. Relatives in Preference Categories: Longer Waits
C. Dealing With the Wait
D. Can You Predict How Long You’ll Wait?
E. Revocation of a Petition or Application

6. Fiancé and Fiancée Visas

A. Who Qualifies for a Fiancé Visa
B. Quick View of the Fiancé Visa Application Process
C. Detailed Instructions for the Fiancé Visa Application Process
D. How to Bring Your Children on a Fiancé Visa
E. Marriage and After

7. Green Cards Through Marriage

A. Who Qualifies
B. Special Rules in Court Proceedings
C. Quick View of the Marriage-Based Green Card Application Process
D. Detailed Instructions for the Marriage-Based Green Card Application Process
E. Bringing Your Children
F. If Your Marriage Is Less Than Two Years Old
G. If You Marry Again
H. Common Questions About Marriage and Immigration

8. Your Parents as Immigrants

A. Who Qualifies to Petition for Their Parents
B. Who Qualifies As Your Parent
C. Quick View of the Application Process
D. Detailed Instructions for the Application Process

9. Child Immigrants

A. Who Qualifies
B. Definition of "Child"
C. Quick View of the Application Process
D. Detailed Instructions for the Application Process
E. Automatic Citizenship for Some Children

10. Orphan Immigrants

A. Who Qualifies as an Orphan Child
B. Who Can Petition for an Orphan Child
C. Pre-Adoption Requirements
D. Starting the Adoption Process
E. After the Petition Is Approved
F. Filing for a Visa
G. Automatic Citizenship for Adopted Orphans

11. The Diversity Visa Lottery

A. Who Qualifies for the Lottery
B. How to Apply for the Lottery
C. After You Win—The Green Card Application
D. How to Bring Your Spouse and Children

12. Amerasian Immigrants

A. Who Qualifies as an Amerasian
B. Who Can Start the Process
C. Who Will Serve as a Sponsor?
D. How to File
E. Where to File

13. Your Brothers and Sisters as Immigrants

A. Who Counts As Your Brother or Sister
B. Quick View of the Application Process
C. Detailed Instructions for the Application Process
D. What Happens After Filing Form I-130

14. Refugees and Political Asylees

A. Who Qualifies
B. Who Is Barred From Qualifying
C. How to Apply for Refugee Status
D. How to Apply for Political Asylum
E. If Your Asylum Application Is Denied
F. Asylees Can Bring Overseas Spouses and Children to the United States
G. Getting a Green Card After Asylum Approval
H. Revocation of Asylee Status
I. Temporary Protected Status (TPS)
J. Deferred Enforced Departure (DED)

15. Military Veterans and Enlistees

A. Who Qualifies to Apply for Citizenship Without a Green Card
B. Who Qualifies for Permanent Residence

16. Registry: For Those in the U.S. Since 1972

A. How You Got Here Is Irrelevant
B. Short Absences Allowed
C. How to File
D. Additional Documentation Required
E. Approval of Registry

17. Cancellation of Removal

A. Applying in Court Proceedings
B. Who Qualifies for Cancellation
C. Who Is Not Eligible for Cancellation
D. Preparing a Convincing Case
E. How to File
F. Approving Your Application
G. Additional Forms of Cancellation of Removal

18. Adjustment of Status

A. Who Is Allowed to Use the Adjustment of Status Procedure
B. People Who Can’t Adjust Status at All
C. How to File
D. After You Apply
E. Interview and Approval

19. Consular Processing

A. How Your Case Gets to the Consulate
B. Forms and Documents You’ll Need to Provide
C. Attending Your Visa Interview
D. Approval of Your Immigrant Visa
E Arriving in the United States

20. Private Bills

A. What Is a Private Bill?
B. How a Private Bill Is Passed

21. Acquiring Citizenship Through U.S. Citizen Parents

A. Who Qualifies for Acquisition of Citizenship
B. Obtaining Proof of U.S. Citizenship
C. Dual Citizenship

22. Filling Out and Submitting Immigration Applications

A. Don’t Give False Answers
B. Get the Latest Forms and Fee Amounts
C. Tips for Filling Out Forms
D. When Additional Proof Is Required
E. Submitting Photographs for Identification
F. Fingerprinting Requirements
G. Keep Your Own File
H. Tips for Filing Applications

23. Tracking Your Application Through the System

A. Understanding the USCIS Culture
B. Where to Go
C. Inquiring About Delays
D. Speeding Up Processing in Emergencies
E. Reporting Wrongdoing

24. Keeping, Renewing, and Replacing Your Green Card

A. Renewing or Replacing Your Green Card
B. When the Immigration Authorities Can Take Away Your Card
C. Planning to Apply for U.S. Citizenship

25. How to Find and Work With a Lawyer

A. Where to Look for a Lawyer
B. Deciding on a Particular Lawyer
C. Paying the Lawyer
D. Managing the Lawyer
E. Firing a Lawyer

Sample Filled-In Forms

Sample Form I-102, Application for Replacement/Initial Nonimmigrant Arrival-Departure Document
Sample Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status
Sample Form I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiancé(e) (as used by an unmarried couple)
Sample Form I-134, Affidavit of Support
Sample Form DS-230, Application for Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration (as used by immigrating fiancé)
Sample Form DS-156, Nonimmigrant Visa Application (as used by immigrating fiancé)
Sample Form DS-156K, Nonimmigrant Fiancé(e) Visa Application
Sample Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative (as used for an immigrating husband or wife)
Sample Form I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiancé(e) (as used by a married couple)
Sample Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence
Sample Form G-325A, Biographic Information
Sample Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative (as used for immigrating parents)
Sample Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative (as used for immigrating children)
Sample Form N-600, Application for Certificate of Citizenship
Sample Form I-600A, Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition
Sample Form I-360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant
Sample Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative (as used for immigrating siblings of U.S. citizens)
Sample Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal
Sample Form I-730, Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition
Sample Form I-360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant
Sample Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Resident or Adjust Status
Sample Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization
Sample Form DS-2001, Notification of Applicant(s) Readiness
Sample Form DS-230 Part I, Application for Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration
Sample Form I-864, Affidavit of Support Under Section 213A of the Act
Sample Form I-864A, Contract Between Sponsor and Household Member
Sample Form DS-230 Part II, Application for Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration
Sample Form I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card
Sample Form I-131, Application for Travel Document

Index

Sample Content

Chapter 2: All The Ways to Get a Green Card

Introduction

The official name for the green card is the Alien Registration Receipt Card. It has been called a green card because, when it was first introduced in the 1940s, the color of the plastic identification card with the alien’s photo, registration number, date of birth, and date and port of entry was green.

The card was blue in the 1960s through the 1970s. In the 1980s, the government changed it to white. Since the 1990s, it has been pink. Even so, this sought-after plastic card continues to be called the green card.

[Graphics of New-Style and Old-Style Green Card] omitted for online sample chapter

There are several ways someone can obtain a green card—that is, become a lawful permanent resident. The most popular ones are through family and work. The other ways include proving that you’re fleeing from persecution, making large investments, or other reasons.

This book covers the green card categories most readily available to ordinary people, with an emphasis on family categories. However, this chapter will tell you a little about the other major green card categories, and where to go next if you’re interested in them.

Family-Based Relationships

Recognizing that the family is important in the life of the nation, the U.S. Congress has created ways for family members to be reunited with their relatives who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.

1. Related or Engaged to a U.S. Citizen

If you are the spouse, child, brother, sister, or parent of, or are engaged to be married to, a U.S. citizen, you can become a lawful permanent resident. The person to whom you’re related or engaged must start the process by filing a petition with USCIS or the U.S. embassy of your country of residence.

If you are the widow or widower of a U.S. citizen with whom you have lived for at least two years, you can petition for a green card for yourself, provided you file the application within two years of the death of your spouse.

2. Related to a Lawful Permanent Resident

If you are the spouse or unmarried child of a lawful permanent resident, you can obtain a green card—some day. First, the relative who has the green card must file a petition with USCIS or the U.S. embassy of your country of residence. But you’ll have to wait several years, until you reach the top of a waiting list, to apply for the actual green card.

3. Other Relatives

If you are the aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, cousin, grandmother, or grandfather of a U.S. citizen, or if you are the brother, sister, parent, or fiancé of someone who holds a green card, you do not qualify for a green card based on a “family relationship.” Understandably, the U.S. Congress had to draw the line on what constitutes a family for the purpose of immigration.

Next Step: If you believe you qualify for a family-based green card, or are helping someone who does, here’s where to go next: Readers who are engaged to U.S. citizens, see Chapter 6. Readers who are married to U.S. citizens or permanent residents, see Chapter 7. Readers who are parents of U.S. citizens, see Chapter 8. Readers who are children of U.S. citizens or permanent residents, see Chapter 9. If you’re an Amerasian child born in Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, or Thailand, see Chapter 12. For how to bring in an orphan child, see Chapter 10. Readers who are brothers or sisters of U.S. citizens, see Chapter 13.

Employment-Based Relationships

If you do not have a close family member who is a U.S. citizen or who holds a green card, you may be able to obtain a green card through a job offer from an employer in the United States—as either a priority or a non-priority worker.

1. Priority Workers

Priority workers are people with extraordinary ability (such as an internationally known artist), outstanding professors and researchers, and multinational executives and managers. Another name for this category is “employment first preference.”

Such highly skilled people have a relatively easy immigration process. Some do not even need a job offer, and none are required to go through the difficult labor certification process that other immigrating workers must pass, in which the Department of Labor determines that there are no U.S. workers available and willing to do the same job.

2. Other Workers

Applicants who have been offered jobs that require graduate degrees in the arts or sciences or a profession (such as a law degree), or a master’s degree in business administration (MBA), or a bachelor’s degree plus five years of specialized experience are eligible for immigrant visas. This category is known as “employment second preference.”

These applicants will first need certification from the Department of Labor saying that no U.S. worker is available, willing, and able to do the job.

Also, ordinary professionals (without graduate degrees) and skilled or unskilled workers (factory workers, plumbers, domestic workers, carpenters, and the like) may apply for labor certification and a green card on the basis of a job offer. This category is known as “employment-based third preference.”

Next Step: If you believe you qualify for any of these employment-based green cards, consult an experienced immigration attorney. As explained earlier, this book doesn’t cover employment-based immigration. The employer who has offered you a job (and you must have a job offer in almost all categories described above) may have an attorney it works with regularly. The employer may even be willing to pay the attorney’s fees. If you’ll be selecting your own attorney, see Chapter 25 for tips.

Be Ready to Wait

It may take you a long time to become a permanent resident under some of the immigrant visa categories described in this chapter. Once you file the first petition form to set the process in motion, however, it may become very difficult for you to come to the United States as a tourist or other nonimmigrant, or to have your status as a nonimmigrant extended.

The only groups who need not be concerned with this warning are diplomats (A visas), employees of international organizations (G visas), intracompany transferees (L-1 or L-2 visas), and workers in specialty occupations that require a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent (H-1B visas).

Special Immigrants

Certain categories of people may obtain a green card by special laws—in addition to certain provisions of the Immigration Act of 1990—intended to benefit limited groups. These include, for example:

priests, nuns, pastors, ministers, rabbis, imams, and other workers of recognized religious denominations
former employees of the U.S. government, commended by the U.S. Secretary of State for having performed outstanding service to the government for at least 15 years
medical doctors who have been licensed in the United States and have worked and lived in the United States since January 1978
former employees of the Panama Canal Zone
retired officers or employees of certain international organizations who have lived in the United States for a certain time, plus their spouses and unmarried children
foreign workers who have been employees of the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong for at least three years
foreign children who have been declared dependent in juvenile courts in the United States, and
international broadcasting employees.

All these people fall into a green card category known as “employment-based fourth preference.”

Next Step: If you believe you fit one of these categories, consult an experienced immigration attorney. Special immigrants are not covered in this book. Your employer may be willing to hire an attorney for you.

Entrepreneur Immigrants

An alien entrepreneur from any country who invests at least one million dollars in a business (or $500,000 if the business is in an economically depressed area) and who employs at least ten U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents is eligible for a green card. Each year, 10,000 immigrant visas are set aside for this millionaire immigrant category, which is designed to create employment. This category is also known as “employment-based fifth preference.”

Next Step: Are you financially able to qualify for a green card based on investment? If so, it’s well worth hiring an experienced immigration attorney to help.

Asylum and Refugee Status

People who can prove that they fled their country for fear of persecution owing to their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social or political group, or political opinion may apply for legal status as refugees and asylees. A person who gains U.S. government approval as a refugee or asylee can apply for permanent residence status later (more specifically, one year after being admitted to the United States as a refugee or one year after petition for asylee status is granted).

Next Step: For more information on applying for refugee or asylee status, see Chapter 14.

Diversity Visa Lottery

The Immigration Act of 1990 created a green card category to benefit people from countries that in recent years have sent the fewest numbers of immigrants to the United States. You can enter the lottery if you are a native of one of those countries and meet certain educational and other requirements. Because the winners are selected through a random drawing, the program is popularly known as the green card lottery. Its official name is the Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery.

There are 50,000 winners selected each year. They are chosen by dividing the world into regions and allocating no more than 7% of the total green cards to each region. However, even if you win the lottery, you still have to make it through the green card application process—and many people fail, because they’re inadmissible or the government can’t process their application by the deadlines set by law.

Next Step: For more information on applying for the visa lottery, and what to do if you win, see Chapter 11.

Amnesties

Once in a while, Congress gives blanket green card eligibility to people who have been living in the United States illegally. Recent amnesties have covered:

aliens who applied for amnesty under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986—having been in the United States out of status since January 1, 1982. Their spouses and unmarried children under 21 years of age were also eligible to become permanent residents.
Nicaraguans, Cubans, Guatemalans, Salvadorans, and certain Eastern Europeans, under the NACARA law.

While the deadlines for both these amnesties have passed, many people’s cases are still being decided by USCIS and the courts.

Next Step: Interested in learning more about a past or upcoming amnesty? Consult an experienced immigration attorney or a local nonprofit. Do not go to a USCIS office unless you want to risk deportation.

Legal Updates

Here are summaries of important legal or procedural changes that affect the latest edition of this product.

Whats New in the 8th Edition of How to Get a Green Card

Overview of What''s New

The new edition covers the latest (raised) USCIS filing fees and changes to application procedures, has samples of how to fill out the latest forms, contains additional advice on proving financial capacity, and has a whole new chapter on getting automatic citizenship through parents or grandparents. Also, new "Immigrant Stories" have been added to illustrate important points, or how to deal with common but difficult situations.

Who Needs the New Edition?

You Need the New Edition If:

you plan to apply for a U.S. immigration benefit.

Chapters Most Affected

Chapter 4, Will Inadmissibility Bar You From Getting a Green Card? Shows the latest federal Poverty Guidelines, plus an expanded discussion of how to fill out the Affidavit of Support.

Chapter 5, How Long You'll Have to Wait: New detailed instructions and sample letter for upgrading your family immigration category (and speeding your entry) after your petitioner becomes a U.S. citizen.

Chapter 9, Child Immigrants: New discussion of adopting immigrant children who are already in the U.S.

Chapter 15, Military Veterans and Enlistees: New green card eligibility category for Afghan and Iraqi translators for the U.S. military.

Chapter 21, Acquiring Citizenship Through U.S. Citizen Parents: Entire new chapter on acquiring U.S. citizenship through parents or grandparents.

Chapter 23, Tracking Your Application Through the System: New preview of how to become eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship.

Forms That Have Changed

The book doesn't provide forms; however, sample forms that changed include:

Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status
Form G-325-A, Biographical Information
Form I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiancé(e)
Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative
Form I-134, Affidavit of Support
Form DS-230, Application for Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration
Form I-864, Affidavit of Support Under Section 213A of the Act
Form I-864A, Contract Between Sponsor and Household Member
Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal
Form I-730, Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition
Form N-600, Application for Certificate of Citizenship, and
Form I-102, Application for Replacement/Initial Nonimmigrant Arrival - Departure Document.

Applicants for Reentry Permits and Refugee Travel Documents Now Need to Be Fingerprinted
Use 2009 Poverty Guidelines When Filling Out Your Affidavit of Support
Six More Countries Participating in Visa Waiver Program
Good News for Foreign-Born Widow(er)s of U.S. Citizens

Legal Solutions for You, Your Family & Your Business