Green Card research

[TheEarl]

Can any Americans help me out on this? What kind of regulations are there to get an American Green Card? What kind of credentials do you need?

Does it grant you residency, or just permission to work? Is it citizenship? Do you need to have lived and worked in the USA for a certain amount of time?

Thanks - I'm afraid my knowledge of American immigration is appalling and I don't really want to google it and get blank facts. I've always found it's best to find stories from real people when researching, rather than facts.

The Earl

 

[tolyk]

You don't want to hear about American immigration from me.. I had nothing but horrible experiences. Horrible system, with a bunch of jerks working it.. *mutter mutter mutter*

 

[Guest]

Can any Americans help me out on this? What kind of regulations are there to get an American Green Card? What kind of credentials do you need?

Does it grant you residency, or just permission to work? Is it citizenship? Do you need to have lived and worked in the USA for a certain amount of time?

Thanks - I'm afraid my knowledge of American immigration is appalling and I don't really want to google it and get blank facts. I've always found it's best to find stories from real people when researching, rather than facts.

The Earl

It is permission to remain in the country indefinitely. They are not easy to obtain, short of marrying an American (Girls -- anyone want to help out Earl?)

It is not citenship, but a step towards it. You have to study and take a test before you can become a citezin (wonder of George W could pass it?-- might get screwed up by the whole checks and balances thing).

Here is a government site that might
help

Watch out for scams. I suspect this is a rich area for them.

 

[Guest]

It's been a few years but I used to help faculty get their card to work at my uni. They had to have a notarized contract from the provost (with dates of employment). It was still an arduous effort as we had to show that no American could do their job and that we'd had a national search for it. I know I'm not much help but I can say it's much tougher to get a card these days (unless you know someone of course). It's good to have a relative here too.

I wouldn't go by what anyone says, read the rules, it's what INS goes by.

Pear

 

[TheEarl]

You don't want to hear about American immigration from me.. I had nothing but horrible experiences. Horrible system, with a bunch of jerks working it.. *mutter mutter mutter*

That's exactly what I want to hear tolyk (if it's not too painful a subject ). Despite Teflon Tony's imminent re-election, I'm looking for background for a story, rather than emigration.

Thanks for the offer of American girls though Ted, I'll take three.

The Earl

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Earl, you should Pm Raphy. He just came over pretty recently and can probably tell you more about how it is now than you will want to hear.

Good Luck

*HUGS*

 

[TheEarl]

Thanks all. The main premise is my character's pissed off cause one of her relatives 'knows someone' and has got a Green Card at the drop of a hat. She's too proud to use nepotism and has had to work her arse off to get one so that she can work in LA.

It's not a major bit of the story, but I like to get these things right. Appreciate all of the help so far.

The Earl

 

[tolyk]

i'll post it later, I gotta run.. have some stuff to take care of and then have Billiards to shoot tonight.

 

[tolyk]

Not going to play pool, decided to stay in, so here goes:

I have always had problems even entering the states. The first time I tried, I was only 17 and they regected me. They didn't tell me at the time, but it was because they thought I had reason to stay illegally.

The second time I was 18 and I was trying to fly down to meet my ex-wife's parents. I was with her at the time and had just recently propose to her. I got turned away again, and this time they red-flagged me on their system. The reasons they told me to my face for not letting me across were all bullshit. The biggest of which was that I didn't have enough money for intended length of stay (2 months was my return ticket) although I had just inherited $22,000. The engagement ring took a nice little chunk of that, and some shopping I did, (plus the airline tickets themselves) but I still had over 18,000 dollars left.

Afterwards, upon talking to the American Embassy on the phone, I was told that if my ex and I hadn't of gone up to the customs agent together, and had I acted like this was a simple vacation, I would've gotten across. So, they told me that I should've lied.

My next attempt to get across was later that year, near Christmas. This time I tried lieing, and I did a horrible job at it. The customs agents knew I was lieing, and were stiffling their laughs. What galls me the most is that they let me across! I had to buy a temporary visits pass that was stapled into my passport (which I got to try to be able to get over the damn border easier) that stated I had to be back across the border before a certain date. Failure to meet that deadline would have me arrested and fined.

Next, I went about trying to move down there, because it is where my ex wanted to live. I had to get a complete physical, get my immunization records printed, fill out a ton of paperwork, and then go to the embassy for an interview. I was engaged, so I got KI stamp in my passport when it was all said and done (I don't remember how much all of this ended up costing me, but it was a lot, considering the full physical was not covered by medicare, had to fork out over 200 dollars for that alone) which stated that I had to get married by a certain date also, since it had an expirery date on it. During all of this paperwork, I was not allowed to enter the United States, thus I missed the birth of my son, and didn't get to meet him until he was a month old. Six months it took me to get all that paperwork done, six freaking months.

One part of moving there was having a sponsor, someone that vouched for me. It was my future mother-in-law in this case. She made up a position for me in her trucking company, gave me a job title and also vouched for me. I didn't really get a job, but if the government asked, I did work for them. I hated lieing, but the immigration people had already pissed me off enough.

They supplied me with a temporary green card, and a social security number so that I could work. The green card was only valid for a year. I cannot quite recall, but I think there was another one in the works, that I wouldn't have to pay any extra money for, but you always start off with a temporary, from what I understand. I got a job with a construction company and had to get a letter of employment from them to send to Immigration. It stated when I started, what my wage was, and roughly how many hours a week I would get.

That is roughly my experience with the United States.. there is more that I can't recall, but thats the gist of it. Hope it helps your story The!

 

[Lisa Denton]

Green cards are hard to get, but easy to buy. Not real ones but the counterfiet ones are often better done than the real ones. Anywho, the reason there is not a huge market for them is that for a little more you can get a drivers license and social security card, they will take your picture right there in the back room of that sleazy bar and you won't have that goofy look on your face like at the Dept. of Public Safety Drivers License place.

You can have your character buy a green card and be perfectly plausible. They sell anything that is hard to get, sellers market, and if you pay enough you get quality, or robbed if you don't have a gun.

I know this not from personal experience but because I used to work with lots of nice peoples from Mexico and other South American countries who thought that was the legal place to buy the inspection stickers and license registration stickers for their cars. I of course told them that it was cheaper to get them the right way. Hope this helps.