USA Green Card Immigration Blog

The U.S. military services sign up about 8,000 foreign nationals annually and about 29,000 non-citizens serve in the U.S. military today. Non-citizen service members normally possess a State Department-issued green card that authorizes them to live and work in the United States.

In December 2008, the United States Department of Defense launched a year-long program to recruit about 1,000 non-U.S. citizen health care workers and language and cultural specialists for service in America’s military. People sought for the program include doctors, nurses, other health care professionals and those proficient in certain foreign languages and associated cultures, according to a Department of Defense news release.

A spokesman for the Department of Defense noted that “there are tens of thousands of health professionals in the United States on a work visa who would be very interested in achieving green card status or, ultimately, citizenship.” The pilot program provides successful applicants with a way to accelerate achievement of U.S. citizenship if “they’re willing to serve in our time of need to fulfill a vital national interest.”

Applicants for the program must be legal aliens who have lived in the U.S. for at least two years and must undergo security screenings and satisfy the same high standards required for every other person entering the military today.

Click on the article link above to read about this ridiculous case involving a Buddhist monk who’s “employment” at a California temple has triggered the wrath of the US government, which “wants to deport the 47-year-old monk, after denying him permanent U.S. residency, or a green card, on the grounds that he was employed without authorization after his temporary religious visa lapsed.”

The monk is fighting in immigration court to remain in the United States.  He is accused of having been “employed” by a Buddhist temple in California, even though his services were uncompensated.  He has taken an oath of poverty, and his “work” consists of spreading a message of peace and compassion!

“The monk’s saga illustrates how an increasingly backlogged and cautious immigration system can trip up some applicants striving to obey the law. In a post-9/11 world, immigration agencies, which have discovered rampant fraud with religious visas, try to strike a balance between screening out security threats and permitting legitimate religious workers.”

“The State Department issued 13,002 R-1 visas in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2008. However, the U.S. government has tightened oversight of the program in recent years. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, concern grew that the visas could be misused by terrorists or radical groups. Then in late 2005, a fraud-detection unit of the Department of Homeland Security found that a third of all immigrant religious visas had been granted on the basis of fraudulent information.”

The green card, also known as the United States Permanent Resident Card, is one of the most valuable documents in the world that authorizes an immigrant to work and live permanently in the U.S.  A green card is mandatory for you to become a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) of U.S.  An individual who marries a U.S. citizen is also eligible for a green card.

Getting a green card through marriage is a multi-step process.  If you live in U.S. and want a green card for your spouse, then you must fill an I-130 petition for alien relative with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) along with proof of your relationship.  In addition, you should submit Form I-485, a marriage green card application for adjustment of status (AOS) to get a permanent resident card.  While filing the petition, you also need to produce documents like a spouse’s U.S. citizenship, biographical forms for husband and wife with photos attached, and marriage certificate.  The USCIS has the right to approve or deny the petition based on the evidence submitted.  Once it is approved, the USCIS will advise you and then, send the approved visa petition to the Department of State’s National Visa Center for visa approval.  The petition will remain in the center until it issues a visa number to the U.S. embassy or consulate.  An immigrant visa number is provided based on a preference system.  Immediate relatives like parents, spouses, and children under the age of 21 are given first preference.  As soon as you get an immigrant visa number, your foreign spouse is eligible for an immigrant visa.  Before getting an immigrant visa, your spouse must undergo a medical examination.  The consular officer chooses a doctor for examining the applicant, and he/she must pay the fee for the doctor along with the visa fees.  Immigrant visas will not be issued if the spouse has a communicable disease, or a dangerous physical or mental disorder.

After an immigrant visa is issued for your foreign spouse, the final step is to change his/her status to permanent resident.  If an immigrant visa number is available, the USCIS will accept and process the I-485 form submitted along with the I-130 petition.

The USCIS will conduct a series of checks on the background of the applicant.  Once the adjustment of status application is accepted, your spouse is allowed to reside in U.S., but he/she is not allowed to leave the country until the application is approved or rejected.  In some cases, the applicant is also called for an interview with the USCIS.  If the application is approved, your spouse becomes a LPR, and the green card is mailed to the applicant.

If you have married a foreign spouse, who lives outside U.S., then you can apply for a K-3 non-immigrant visa. For a non-immigrant visa, you need to file I-129 petition with the USCIS.  It will take approximately 5 to 8 months to get the K-3 spouse visa.  The visa is valid up to two years and it offers complete freedom to your spouse to live, work, and study in U.S while he/she is waiting for her green card approval.  Apart from K-3, the spouse of a U.S. citizen can also enter the country with a B-2 visitor visa.

That is the lengthy process in a nutshell.