How does one get a green card?

you have to win the greencard lottery (I do know people who've succeeded this way), get a company to sponsor you for the green card, or marry an American and get it that way.

ECS wrote:

you have to win the greencard lottery (I do know people who've succeeded this way), get a company to sponsor you for the green card, or marry an American and get it that way.

Marrying someone just to get into the US sounds a bit... nasty.

I wasn't advocating marrying simply for a green card. You asked how it was possible, I told you the possible ways. Maybe you'll meet and fall in love with an American someday.

Hi Onyx,

Don't be surprised when you find out it isn't really GREEN. The INS Alien Registration Card is actually ORANGE.

May sound nasty, getting married just to get into the USA, but you'd be amazed just how many people do exactly that and how many actually offer to get married for a nice fat sum of money to allow somebody to get permanent residency and they a quicky divorce.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team

ECS wrote:

I wasn't advocating marrying simply for a green card. You asked how it was possible, I told you the possible ways. Maybe you'll meet and fall in love with an American someday.

Oh I see, fair enough :3

wjwoodward wrote:

Hi Onyx,

Don't be surprised when you find out it isn't really GREEN. The INS Alien Registration Card is actually ORANGE.

May sound nasty, getting married just to get into the USA, but you'd be amazed just how many people do exactly that and how many actually offer to get married for a nice fat sum of money to allow somebody to get permanent residency and they a quicky divorce.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team

Hey!

Yeah I know, I saw an image of it and was like wait... should it not be orange?

It might be a simple way to get into the US but I am not that kind of person

How does one get a green card?
www.americanexpress.com

Hello SoullessOnyx

I moved to the US as the spouse of a US citizen.  I can assure you that even as a spouse the paperwork is very involved (and expensive) and takes around 8 months (well currently it does but could be longer just depending on the caseload at immigration).

I cannot advise as to how involved the process is if you win the green card lottery but I imagine that given you have already won it, you would not be required to go through any of the steps I went through in order to just get the application approved.

If you get sponsored by a company, I think your visa only entitles you to stay there whilst you are sponsored by that company.  So if you wanted to live there for a few years then go home, that might be a way to go.  If you did go that route, and you wanted to stay then you would want to look into how to convert your status to citizenship (assuming you can do this via a work visa).

Check out this site:

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis

For a humorous account of the US spouse visa:

cracked.com/article_18552_so-you-want-to-be-american-5-circles-immigration-hell.html

The green card has gone through some appearance changes over the years.  I haven't seen an orange one before but perhaps it was at some stage.  The card issued to me in January this year is definitely green.

You should check with the USCIS website when it comes closer to the time that you plan to apply. The rules can change so keep yourself up to date.

When you do eventually get residency remember this:  If you leave the US and are out of the country for 12 months, you will most likely lose your residency status.  If you want to stay there you need to work and live there constantly.  Sure you can take vacations out of the country but don't leave for long periods and apply for citizenship when you can, which I believe is after 3 years of residency.

I hope this is helpful.

I also came across this flowchart. I think this was done in 2009. As I mentioned, the rules do change but a lot of this is still relevant.

usagreencardcenter.com/immigration-flowchart.htm