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Green Card Program

There a number of avenues to a Green Card, or lawful permanent residence (LPR), in the United States. The two most common are immigration through employment and immigration through family in procedures managed through the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). In order for a foreign national to qualify for immigration through family, he must be sponsored by a relative who is a U.S. Citizen or lawful permanent resident. A Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, and a Form I-864, Affidavit of Support, must be submitted to the USCIS to begin the process. Once approved, if the foreign national is not an immediate family member of a U.S. Citizen, the petition enters into the State Department queue for the issuance of visa numbers. Once the visa number is issued, the immigrant, if in the U.S. at the time of the issuance, may submit Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, or if the immigrant is outside of the U.S., he may go to the local U.S. Consulate to complete the processing. For foreign nationals immigrating through employment, an employer submits a labor certification request to the Department of Labor. Once this request is certified, the employer includes it in the submission of Form I-140, Petition for Alien Worker, to the USCIS. The petition enters a queue at the State Department for the issuance of a visa number. Once that number is granted the immigrant may then adjust his status.

Fast Facts

  • The preference system for the issuance of visa numbers for family-based immigration is based on the citizenship status of the sponsor and the relationship between the sponsor and the applicant.
  • The prioritization system for the issuance of visa numbers for employment-based immigration is based on the categorization of the immigrant by the type of worker he would be in the U.S. under the following categories: EB-1, EB-2, EB-3 and EB-4.
  • The majority of petitions for immigration follow the family-based path, accounting for 65 percent of the LPR petitions in 2008.

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