Every year the huge number of foreigners wishing to obtain well-known Green Card. Also Ukrainians massively migrate to the United States in search of decent living, decent work and pay, or they migrate through the variety of international programs, such as the widely popular Work & Travel Student Exchange program.
In the expanses of the World Wide Web you can find many information about the possibility to get a Green Card. And this is not surprising, because everyone dreams about visit to the territory of one of the most developed country in the world – the United States of America. Actually, the Green Card provides an opportunity to permanently reside and even officially work in the United States. Another, more official name of Green Card is the United States Permanent Residence Card.
There are four most popular grounds of obtaining Green card:
- Diversification lottery;
- Marriage registration with a US citizen and further family reunification (visa for brides);
- Employment in the USA (work visa);
- Territorial origin (visa for family members).
Let’s look each one more details:
- Diversification visa lottery
This is probably one of the easiest ways that does not require many paperwork, terms of participation, or payment of an administrative fee for participation. But do not forget that it is a lottery and the chances of winning are not high.
The State Department’s diversification visa program has been operated since 1990. Every year, this official program played out 50 000 green cards all over the world. The functional purpose of such a program is to empower and encourage foreigner to migrate to the United States of America. Citizens of each foreign country, who have registered their applications for a diversification visa lottery are on an equal footing. This means that each country can obtain no more than 7% of the total amount of Green Cards.
The terms of participation in this lottery are not difficult. You should be a member of the participating country and have completed secondary education or 2 years of work experience in the same job. The winners will be chosen randomly. Your level of English or the level of your knowledge in a particular area of activity will not affect on the winning.
At the moment, there are many “offices” that offer their services in the registration of a diversification visa lottery, and moreover, guarantee a 100% benefit in this program. We want to prevent you from using similar services of such offices and providing your personal data for their further use.
- Marriage registration with a US citizen and further family reunification (visa for brides)
As in any country in the world, marriage with a foreigner can be a ground of obtaining Green Card. In this case, you should collect the list of documents provided by the US legislation:
- Applicant’s passport and photocopy of the applicant’s personal data, all pages with your visas;
- Petition for Relative (sample can be obtained from the link – Form I-130);
- Marriage Certificate (as a confirmation of family ties). If the marriage has been registered in Ukraine, Marriage Certificate of the Ukrainian sample must be apostilled, translated into English and notarized;
- The document on which the foreigner obtained US citizenship (this may be a Birth Certificate, Certificate of naturalization, or passport).
* Other documents may be included, for example:
– If the applicant had been arrested, he should submit court decision;
– If you change the last name, and there is a discrepancy in the documents, you should submit Certificate of Change of the surname / name.
You should submit mentioned documents to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) of your territorial jurisdiction in the United States. Also there are the free of charge consultations. You can find additional information on the site and find the nearest territorial unit of the migration service in the territory of the USA – https://www.uscis.gov/.
You can also submit documents to the US Embassy or Consulate where there is no USCIS representation. However, such opportunity can be possible only in the exceptional situations. The petitioner who want to submit Form I-130 (PDF, 81 KB) to the US Embassy or Consulate in a country where there is no USCIS representation must submit a request to the Consular Section explaining the details of the situation. Then the Consular Section will send this request to the USCIS office under the jurisdiction of the Embassy or Consulate. The USCIS will decide whether the situation presented in the case deserves an exclusion from the general rules of petition submission.
The green card is issued for a period of 10 years with the possibility to extend it.
- Employment in the US (working visa)
This procedure is quite complicated, because in the USA the employment rate of population is on the high level. Your employer must “convince” the state why you should take a specific job and your level of knowledge and skills is one that the United States is needed.
Why is this procedure prolonged? The employer is obligated to receive a U.S. Department of work permit, which usually takes more than one month. And then there will be a collection of documents and submission to the Migration Service.
- Territorial origin (visa for family members)
This ground is similar with family reunification, but American legislation very clearly regulates foreigners, who are in the category: close relatives and family members.
Category “close relatives” means:
- husband /wife;
- parents;
- Children up to 21.
“Family members” are brothers / sisters, children over 21 years. This ground also requires petition (Petition for Relative).
There are also a number of nuances, such as: payment of taxes and reportings, place of registration (registration), social insurance and the limit of days of staying in the territory of the United States. All these things are very important and it will influence on your stay in America.
According to recent news, Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States of America, has repeatedly expressed his intention to stopped issuing the Green Card on the basis of diversification visa lotteries. The level of crime in the United States is constantly increasing, and mainly the perpetrators are those who received the Green Card on the ground of diversification visa lotteries. However, at the moment, visa lotteries for green cards continue, according to data from the official website, and confidently talk about the abolition of this ground is too early.
