Every October we receive many questions about the green card. We receive them despite the fact that we do not specialize in matters of immigration, obtaining citizenship, and other procedures, the result of which will be obtaining a U.S. passport.
And since the questions have not stopped this year either, we decided to give an official answer to them and tell everything we know about the green card.
What is a green card?
Officially, this card is called the United States Permanent Resident Card. This document is a kind of identity card that gives its holder the right to live and work in the United States. There is a mistaken belief that getting a green card means getting U.S. citizenship. This is not so. It is getting the opportunity to live and work in the country. But to become a U.S. citizen, a green card holder must go through the naturalization procedure, which lasts several years, provide a huge number of documents, pass interviews, and so on.
How can you get a green card?
In fact, you can get a green card in several ways. Many people think that you can only win it in the green card lottery, but that is not so.
Here are all the ways to obtain a green card:
- Diversity lottery. Yes, you can’t do without it. This is a lottery for which you can submit documents every October. Read more about the green card lottery below. You can submit your data for the Green Card 2016 lottery from October 4 to November 7.
- Family reunification. When, for example, a son moved to the USA a long time ago, obtained citizenship, and now wants his mom and dad to move to the USA and live with him in the same house.
- Marriage to a U.S. citizen. Yes, yes! Marriage to an American does not give you citizenship, you get a green card!
- Employment with an American company. Some give work visas, and some, more generous and loving, arrange a green card for you!
- Obtaining political asylum or refugee status. For example, you live in Ukraine or Russia, and you are a homosexual. Same-sex marriages are not allowed here, and the attitude toward sexual minorities is not the most friendly! In that case, you can request political asylum!
What privileges does a green card provide?
Having a green card, you can officially stay in the United States for any amount of time, but not less than 6 months each year. You can buy and sell real estate, get a driver’s license, officially get a job, enroll in a university, and much more. Many people live in the USA on a green card for several decades and lead exactly the same lifestyle as real Americans.
How to win a green card in the lottery? Follow our instructions + add luck to it and the green card is yours!
Step-by-step instructions for participating in the green card lottery:
Step one: can you participate?
You need to understand whether you have the right to participate in the green card lottery or not. You can determine eligibility to participate in the lottery by the citizenship of the country you hold. And so as not to list the countries for a long time, I will say that Ukraine and Russia are among the countries whose citizens can participate in the lottery. But if you are a citizen of another country, check on the green card lottery website whether you can submit your application. This is very easy to do. We go via the link and on the very first page we read the list of countries whose citizens cannot participate in the green card lottery.
Step two: take a photo for the green card
Using the same link, but a little lower, we study the information about the photo or just open it on the phone, print it out, copy it down, and go with it to a photo studio! In fact, photographers in studios all year round take photos for passports, U.S. visas, Schengen visas, and throughout October, photos for the green card. Therefore, it is quite enough just to say that you need a photo for the green card and the photographer will immediately understand what format you need!
After you take the photo, you can check its correctness and compliance with the parameters through the photo tool.
Step three: fill out the form
Filling out the green card form will take you 5–10 minutes. To do this, take your international passport so that you can correctly enter your first and last name in English! Well, shall we go?
We follow the link to the official green card lottery website https://www.dvlottery.state.gov/ and click the green button Begin Entry
We enter the code into the blank field and click the Submit button. After clicking the button, a form will open in front of us that must be filled out:
- Last/Family name – your last name (Ivanov, Petrov, Smith)
- First name – your first name (Olya, Katya, Ivan, etc.)
- Middle name – in most cases, citizens of CIS countries do not have a middle name, so we leave this field blank and check the box next to No Middle Name. ATTENTION: Middle Name is not a patronymic! Do not write Ivanov or Ivanovna here! Leave this field blank!
- Gender – select M (male) or F (female)
- Birth Date – date of birth. First enter the month (month), then the day (day) and the year (year)
- Birth City – the city where you were born. If for some reason you do not know the city where you were born, check the box next to Birth City Unknown
- Country Where You Were Born – enter the country where you were born
- Country of Eligibility for the DV Program – if you submit your green card application based on the country where you were born, you also live in that same country now and it is eligible for the lottery, then select Yes. For example, you were born in Ukraine, live in Ukraine and your citizenship is also Ukrainian – select yes and move on! If, for example, you were born in Ukraine but fill out the form as a citizen of Poland, you select No and indicate Poland as the country from which you are applying!
ATTENTION: If you were born before 1991, that is, still in the USSR, you still indicate your place of birth as Ukraine, Russia, Belarus. Do not panic and look for USSR in the list of countries; it simply is not there! Even if your passport lists your place of birth as the USSR, in the green card application, just like for a U.S. visa, you still indicate the country that was part of the USSR and in which you were born! That is, Ukraine, Russia, Armenia, etc.
- Entrant Photograph – click choose file and attach your photo
- Mailing Address – write your home address. You can indicate the address of your registration or your actual residential address, that is, the address where you can receive written correspondence.
- In Care Of (optional) – do not fill out
- Address Line 1 – here write the street name, house number, and apartment number. At the same time, start the address with the house number. For example, you live on Kyivska Street, house 5, apt. 1. That means in this field you should write 5 Kievska str apt 1
- Address Line 2 (optional) – do not fill out
- City/Town – the name of the city where you live
- District/County/Province/State – the region or area where you live
- Postal Code/Zip Code – your postal code
- Country – the name of the country (choose from the drop-down list)
- Country Where You Live Today – choose from the drop-down list the country where you currently live
- Phone Number – indicate your phone number in the format + __________
- E-Mail Address – enter a current email
- Confirm E-Mail Address – enter the same email again as in the line above
- What is the highest level of education you have achieved, as of today? – select from the offered options the level of your education. Choose only 1 option
- Primary school only – if you studied at school but did not finish it. Or if at the time of filling out you are still studying at school
- High School, no degree – if you studied at school, finished 11 grades but for some reason did not receive a certificate
- High School degree – you finished school and received a certificate
- Vocational School – you finished a college or vocational school
- Some University Courses – you study at a university but have not finished it yet
- University Degree – you finished university and received higher education (a bachelor’s or specialist diploma)
- Some Graduate Level Courses – you have a bachelor’s diploma and you continue studying in a master’s program
- Master’s Degree – you finished university and received a master’s diploma
- Some Doctorate Level Courses – you study in postgraduate school
- Doctorate Degree – you have a PhD or academic degree
According to the lottery conditions, you must at least finish high school
- What is your current marital status? – your marital status. You must select 1 option that corresponds to reality
- Unmarried – not married
- Married and my spouse is NOT a U.S.citizen or U.S. Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) – married and your spouse is not a U.S. citizen or a U.S. lawful permanent resident
- Married and my spouse IS a U.S.citizen or U.S. Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) – married and your spouse is a U.S. citizen or a U.S. lawful permanent resident
- Divorced – you are divorced
- Widowed – widowed
- Legally Separated – when a couple is not officially divorced, but according to a court decision lives separately.
- Number of Children – number of children. Just enter the number. If you have no children, leave this field blank
Click the Continue button. If you indicated that you have children or that you are married, you will need to fill out information about your spouse and each of your children in the same way. Do not forget that you must also attach a photograph for your spouse and for each child.
After filling out all the information, a page will open where you can check the correctness of the entered data. If you find an error, click go back to part 1; if not, click Continue.
That’s it! Your application for participation in the green card lottery has been accepted!
Now the most important thing! Save the number (Confirmation Number) that the system gave you. You can write it down in a notebook, copy it, or simply print the document with the number that the system gave you after filling out the form.
From May 4, 2017, the results of the drawing will be available on the green card lottery website https://www.dvlottery.state.gov! You will be able to go to the website, enter your number, and find out whether you won.
IMPORTANT INFO
There are a huge number of companies on the internet that offer their services for filling out green card forms. Whether to use their services or not is your decision. As you can see from our instructions, anyone who has a computer and internet can fill out the form. No special knowledge or perfect English is required to fill out the form.
Also, be careful and beware of scammers. You may receive letters by mail with information that you have already won a green card and must pay a certain amount of dollars to get the official result. Other companies on the internet say that only through them you can submit documents for a green card and take money from you for the opportunity to fill out the form. Therefore, be careful! You can fill out the green card form only on the official green card website https://www.dvlottery.state.gov/ As for the results of the drawing, they are never mailed to applicants. You must independently go to the website, enter your code, and check the result. If you received a letter congratulating you on winning a green card, those are 100% scammers who will soon ask you to pay for something!