A Green Card, also known as a PR Card, is a type of Visa that permits its bearer to live and work in the United States permanently. Depending on your job and personal circumstances, you may be eligible for permanent residency in the United States. As a result, you’ll be closer than ever before to becoming a naturalised citizen of the United States. The United States does not provide permanent residency to anyone who just has a student visa. Applying for a green card from India may seem impossible, but we can guide you through the process. Every type of visa, from those for skilled employees and religious workers to those for exceptional immigrants, may be accommodated, and we can assist you to obtain the immigration services you need.
Let’s have a look at the requirements and procedures for obtaining a permanent resident card in the United States from your native country. In many (though not all) categories, the number of persons who can legally enter the United States each year is capped by U.S. immigration law. Accordingly, the time it takes to just move ahead with an application might be anything from zero to twenty years or more. You can yourself in a position where you have to apply for a green card as the sibling of a U.S. citizen, despite the fact that this is not the best possible scenario for you. They have to wait for the longest of everyone for any type of visa.
The Visa Bulletin, published monthly by the U.S. Department of State, details the many visa categories available to foreign nationals. There are primarily two categories for immigrant visa numbers: Preferences Based on Employment and Those Supported by Family (discussed further below). A “Diversity Immigrant” classification is also provided in the Bulletin (also discussed further below). Each major category will have its own set of subcategories beneath it. The Bulletin’s primary function is to provide up-to-date information on available immigrant visas, therefore allowing applicants to monitor their status in line. The graphic illustrates the month, day, and year that each group of people who can now be removed from the waiting list originally submitted their immigration applications.
You may estimate how long other candidates have been waiting by the time you join them by counting backwards from the current time. Due to the significant demand from Chinese, Indian, Mexican, and Philippine citizens for immigrant visas, these countries’ citizens have their own, typically more delayed, Priority Date columns in the Visa Bulletin. On the other side, there may be no wait at all in your category since demand has been low recently. This is indicated by a “C” for “current.”
Possibilities to Obtain a Green Card Through a Family-Sponsored Visa
The spouse, unmarried child under 21 or parent of a United States citizen over the age of 21 has the shortest path to legal permanent residency under the family-based immigration category. All of these relationships qualify as “immediate,” so all of these people can apply for immigrant visas without having to wait or worry about hitting yearly caps. (The Visa Bulletin doesn’t even mention them.)
Family-Sponsored Preferences in the Visa Bulletin cover the following groups (who may have to wait for visa eligibility):
Families with dependent children under the age of 21 are given priority (F1).
Spouses and children of permanent residents (2A) and unmarried sons and daughters of permanent residents (age 21 or older) qualify for the Family Second Preference (F2) preference category (category 2B).
The F3 preference category is for spouses and unmarried children of U.S. citizens.
Brothers & sisters of adult U.S. citizens are eligible for Family Fourth Preference (F4) status.
It’s important to note that none of these is close-blood relatives (i.e. no cousins or grandparents).
Spouses & unmarried children under the age of 21 of U.S. permanent residents often have wait times between two months and two years, the shortest of these so-called “preferred relations” (not close relatives). However, this is subject to the number of applicants ahead of you.
Classifications Based on Desire to Work
In contrast to the family preference categories, employers in the United States are often the ones that sponsor foreign nationals through the job preference categories. Furthermore, the employment-based categories are often distinguished by the level of expertise and training necessary for the position. The fourth and fifth employment-based preference groups are two notable deviations. As for the latter, we’ll get to it in a while. Although most categories of employment-based immigrant visas have very low wait times, the application procedure necessitates much time and paperwork from the applicant and the employer that is sponsoring the visa. In addition, some of the qualifications for even being considered for a position might be rather stringent in terms of the applicant’s level of education, training, and work experience.
Migrants Accepted Due to Visa Diversity Program (the “Lottery”)
The Diversity Visa (DV) programme has been called a “lottery” for green cards. You’re not too far off here.
Foreign people from nations with a low number of permanent residence applications to the United States are eligible for one of the 55,000 immigrant visa numbers made available by U.S. immigration legislation. You can apply for the DV programme if you fulfil the educational criteria, can show that you will be able to support yourself financially in the United States, and have no difficulties that would render you inadmissible, including a criminal record or immigration offences.
Your odds of being accepted into the DV programme are, however, tied to both your individual situation and random chance. Even if you are fortunate enough to be selected under the DV programme, you must complete all necessary steps in time to receive your visa before the annual quota is exhausted (a challenge, since the State Department already picks more “winners” than there are visa numbers).
