US Green Card

Keyzer · 06-10-2004 4:09pm #1

Hi All,
Does anoyone know when the US green card lottery thingy comes around?
Official dates that is, I have looked on various sites and none have the officla date.

Also, does anyone know how long it takes to find out if you got it, and if you got it, how long before it becomes valid?

Any help appreciated....

Tippex · 06-10-2004 5:44pm

Hi,

This year they are only accepting application between November 5th and January 7th. All applications are now to be made online.

For more information Click Here

Ruu_Old · 06-10-2004 8:54pm

i applied here and that wasnt online

Tippex · 07-10-2004 10:00am

Ruu wrote:

i applied here and that wasnt online

What they must do is input your application onto the State departments site and they probably scan in the photos also.

vigos · 10-10-2004 4:30pm

you should also know that to apply is free even though there are alot of sites which will charge you for applying on your behalf

por · 15-10-2004 5:28pm

vigos wrote:

you should also know that to apply is free even though there are alot of sites which will charge you for applying on your behalf

Yea keep away from the guys telling you that they can help your application if at $50 fee, that is a load of BS, all it is is a lottery no one can increase your chances.

It takes the bones of a year and half from the time you apply to the time you complete the process. The numbers going to Irish residents are tiny these days, something in the 100's I think.

Gandhi · 11-11-2004 9:52pm

It took me roughly a year from when I applied. The rules may have changed since the mid-90s, but for me it went something like this:

March of '95: Sent off application

July of '95: Get letter from US Embassy telling me I got it. Letter arrives three days after I blew my life savings moving to London - lovely. Letter included about twenty pages of forms to fill out.

September 30th of '95: This was my "priority date". Not a deadline exactly, but that was the point where the visa would be offered to someone else if you have not replied to the offer. If you reply before the other dude replies, you still get it. I replied just before my priority date.

February of '96: Went to US Embassy for interview, fingerprinting, Chest X-Ray, and register for the draft etc. At this point was given an immigrant visa, which was valid for four months.

April of '96: Traveled to the US and handed in the visa at passport control. They asked me some questions did quite a bit of paperwork (well over half an hour in there) and gave me a stamp (valid for a year) on the passport that acted like a temporary green card for work purposes.

May of '96: Received my green card in the mail six weeks after arriving.

A few notes, assuming rules are still the same:

- Once you get through the interview, you have four months to go to the States to turn the visa into a green card. If you do not, the visa expires and is gone forever.
- Once you get there, you must give them an address where they will mail your green card.
- The stamp on your passport can be used to prove to employers that you are legal to work until you get the green card.
- You cannot leave the States again until you get the actual Green Card. Mine took only six weeks but one of my friends' took 15 months.
- So, if you apply, be prepared to move to the States at (at most) four months notice, and be prepared to stay there over a year if necessary.
- Also, Green Cards expire if you leave the States for a period of more than six months. There was talk of making it three months, but I am not sure if that ever happened. It used to be a year, so lads in college would just come over to work for the summer to keep the Green Card active.
They are enforcing this now. I know one dude who had his taken off him recently for being out of the country too long. The only way around this is to become a citizen, which you can do after about five years of being here with a Green Card

Anyway, that is how it worked for me. I presume it is still roughly the same.

- Gandhi

Lex_Diamonds · 12-11-2004 2:00pm

Good info! Register for the draft though? I thought aliens were excluded from such things.

por · 12-11-2004 2:49pm

Gandhi wrote:

Also, Green Cards expire if you leave the States for a period of more than six months. There was talk of making it three months, but I am not sure if that ever happened. It used to be a year, so lads in college would just come over to work for the summer to keep the Green Card active.
They are enforcing this now. I know one dude who had his taken off him recently for being out of the country too long. The only way around this is to become a citizen, which you can do after about five years of being here with a Green Card

If you plan on being out for over 6 months get what is call a Re-Entry permit, this will allow you to be out of the country for 2 years from the date it is issues no questions asked. However if you do return within the 2 yaers the 'clock' on citizenship will be set back to 0 so you will have to maintain your residency for 5 years to apply for citizenship.

I left the US in Aug 2002 and applied for a Re-Entry permit prior to leaving, it was not approved until Dec 2003 so it is vaild until Dec 2005.

With regard to selective service (the draft) I belive that if you are over 26 you do not have to register. If you are under 26 and fail to register it will come back and bite you when applying for citizenship.

Keyzer · 12-11-2004 3:02pm

Many thanks to POR and GANDHI for there comments, much appreciated information.

Lex_Diamonds · 12-11-2004 3:36pm

Grand so, wouldnt want to be a citizen anyway.

Gandhi · 12-11-2004 4:07pm

por wrote:

With regard to selective service (the draft) I belive that if you are over 26 you do not have to register. If you are under 26 and fail to register it will come back and bite you when applying for citizenship.

AFAIK you have to register if you come in on an Immigrant (i.e. permanent) visa, but not if you come in on a Non-Immigrant (i.e. temporary - student, J1, H1-B etc.) visa. I heard before that if they do draft, the first people to get drafted are non-citizens who are eligible for it, i.e. Green Card holders. I have never heard this from an official source, though.

The citizenship forms do ask for your Selective Service Number, but I have no way of knowing if they actually check up on you. I have been told, by an immigration official, that they do not check up on your tax payment record, which they also ask you about. From what I hear, if you apply for a job working for the government, it really hurts your chances to not be registered for the draft.

I only have one friend who did not register for the draft, and he got citizenship through his wife. Getting citizenship through marriage is an enormous hassle, from what he tells me. He didn't bother even trying to naturalize, as he figured he couldn't.

I would just register for the draft and get the citizenship through the normal channels. It's not that tough - more waiting than anything else. Even with Dubya trying to take over the world, they are very unlikely to actually re-institute a draft. Of course, if you are over 26, or a woman, you don't have to worry about it.

Also, one quick tip on the lottery, make sure you keep an eye on the dates. The year that I got it, they had scheduled it for the month of June, and then switched it to the month of March. They only announced this in mid-February, so I presume that reduced the entries a huge amount.

Lastly, one thing that caught me off guard on the citizenship forms was that they ask for your departure and return dates on every trip you took outside the US (including to Canada) since coming in on the green card. I had to make wild guesses for a lot of them and got away with it, but I would keep a record as they seem to be getting stricter on a lot of things lately.

- Good luck
- Gandhi

US Green Card

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