Green Card & Visa News

This is a fact that India is still a developing country and US has been a developed country for a long time. So Indians in search of greener pastures migrate to US looking for better jobs and good standard of living. Most of them travel on visas that are non-immigrant and mostly get a HIB visa that gives a ticket to stay in US for at most 6 years. After giving services for these many years everyone wants to have a permanent citizenship of US and that is granted by the green card. It is a long process to get a green card and very difficult to get one soon.

So the steps to get a green card for Indians in US are enumerated below:

1. Filling of a Petition: The process usually starts with a petition filled by a resident of US for the person who has applied for the immigrant visa and the resident may be an employer or close family member. The form is I-140 or I-130 depending on the petitioner. This is accompanied by a petition fee as applicable.
2. Immigrant Visa Availability: Filling of petition doesn’t guarantee immigration. There is a particular quota of green cards allotted per year. Every type of green card has its own quota. Once the petition is complete the case is transferred to National Visa Centre where all the cases are processed and a thorough checking of the immigrant is done by the concerned officer.
3. Grant of Green Card: Once the immigrant visa number is generated and the visa is granted in present date than the person who is living abroad can set his status to permanent resident of US and the person who is living outside US applies for the immigration in the nearest US embassy.

Some of these steps may vary as type of green card changes. Like, if there is sponsorship from the employer than a labour certificate is needed and the immigrant can fill I-140 form and the I-485 form which is final step to get a green card. If some entrepreneur is applying for visa than an investment of one million dollars shall be made and form I-526 has to be filled. But in nutshell preceding points are applicable.