Who Qualifies for a Green Card

Categories of people who may apply to make their permanent home in the United States.

People all over the world have heard of green cards -- more properly known as "alien registration receipt cards." Years ago, these cards were green. Then, for a while, they were red, white, and blue. Today they are pink, but the term green card has stuck.

Many people mistakenly believe that green cards are nothing more than work permits. While a green card does give an immigrant the right to work legally in the United States, that is just one of its features. Its main function is to identify the holder as a permanent resident of the United States. A work permit is a separate document, given to certain people who are staying temporarily.

Getting a green card is not an easy process. First, in most cases you must have a sponsor in the United States, usually an American relative or employer who wants to bring you to the U.S. And you have to be able to convince the U.S. government that you are eligible under one of the categories available for permanent residence. You must apply for an immigrant visa at the embassy or consulate in the country where you live. (If you are already in the United States, you may be allowed to stay there to apply directly for a green card, but usually only if you are there on a valid, unexpired visa.)

The embassy or consulate will review your green card application, making sure you do not fall into any category of people who are excluded from the United States, which is called being "inadmissible." Only then will you get an immigrant visa stamped into your passport. You must enter the United States within six months to claim your green card.

The law provides many categories of permanent residence (listed below). You must fit into one of those categories to be eligible for a green card. There are often numerical limits or quotas within categories, and certain categories are given higher preference than others. This leads to long waits for certain people, because the demand for green cards is always higher than the annual limits.

1. Immediate Relatives

There is no quota limit on the number of green cards that can be issued to immediate relatives of U.S. citizens. Immediate relatives are defined as:

• spouses of U.S. citizens, including recent widows and widowers
• unmarried people under the age of 21 who have at least one U.S. citizen parent
• parents of U.S. citizens, if the U.S. citizen child is over the age of 21
• stepchildren and stepparents of U.S. citizens, if the marriage creating the stepparent/stepchild relationship took place before the child's 18th birthday, and
• parents and children of U.S. citizens related through adoption, if the adoption took place before the child reached the age of 16.

2. Preferences

Those who receive green cards under categories with quotas fall into one of several classifications called "preferences." A total of 480,000 green cards are available annually to people in the preference categories. Anyone in a preference category will have to wait for their green card, sometimes for years. Although there are a number of preference categories, they actually cover only two general types of people:

• certain family members of U.S. citizens or permanent residents, and
• people with job skills wanted by U.S. employers.

Group I: Family Preference Green Cards

Family First Preference. Unmarried adults, age 21 or over, who have at least one U.S. citizen parent.

Family Second Preference. Section 2A: Spouses and unmarried children under age 21 of a green card holder. Section 2B: Unmarried children over age 21 of a green card holder.

Family Third Preference. Married people, any age, who have at least one U.S. citizen parent.

Family Fourth Preference. Sisters and brothers of U.S. citizens, where the citizen is age 21 or older.

Group II: Employment Preference Green Cards

A total of 140,000 green cards are offered in the employment categories each year.

Employment First Preference. Priority workers, including the following three groups:

• persons of extraordinary ability in the arts, the sciences, education, business, or athletics
• outstanding professors and researchers, and
• managers and executives of multinational companies.

Employment Second Preference. Professionals with advanced degrees or exceptional ability.

Employment Third Preference. Professionals and skilled or unskilled workers.

Employment Fourth Preference. Religious workers and various miscellaneous categories of workers and other "special immigrants."

Employment Fifth Preference. Individual investors willing to invest $1 million in a U.S. business -- or $500,000 if the business is in an economically depressed area. The investor must also employ at least ten workers.

3. Ethnic Diversity: Green Card Lotteries

A certain number of green cards are made available to people from countries that in recent years have sent the fewest immigrants to the United States. The total number of green cards offered in this category is currently 50,000. The purpose of this program is to ensure a varied ethnic mix among those who immigrate to America. The method used for distributing these green cards is a random selection by computer, so the program is popularly known as the green card lottery.

4. Special Immigrants

Occasionally, laws are passed making green cards available to people in special situations. The current special immigrant categories are:

• religious workers for legitimate religious organizations
• foreign medical graduates who have been in the United States since 1978
• former employees of the Panama Canal Zone
• foreign workers who were formerly longtime employees of the U.S. government
• retired officers or employees of certain international organizations who have lived in the United States for a certain time, plus their spouses and unmarried children
• foreign workers who have been employees of the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong for at least three years
• foreign children who have been declared dependent in juvenile courts in the United States, and
• international broadcasting employees.

5. Refuge and Political Asylum

The U.S. government offers refuge to people who fear, or have experienced, persecution in their home country. The persecution must be based on the person's race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. A person still outside the United States would apply to be a refugee; a person already in the United States would apply for political asylum. The qualifications for refugee status and political asylum are similar. However, if you are fleeing only poverty or random violence, you do not qualify in either category.

The number of refugees allowed into the United States each year is established by the U.S. president. There is no limit on the number who can receive political asylum, except that only 1,000 immigrants will be accepted whose asylum claim was based on opposition to coercive family planning practices.

6. Temporary Protected Status

The U.S. government may decide to give citizens of certain countries temporary safe haven in the United States when conditions in their homeland become dangerous. This is called Temporary Protected Status (TPS). TPS is similar to political asylum, except that it is always temporary and will never by itself qualify you for a green card. To find out who is eligible for TPS, visit the website of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS, formerly called the INS) at www.uscis.gov. Click on Immigration Services and Benefits, then on Temporary Protected Status.

7. Amnesty

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) gave amnesty to aliens who had been living in the United States illegally since January 1, 1982, by making green cards available to them. The deadline for filing applications was May 4, 1988. However, the "LIFE" Act created new opportunities for certain applicants whose cases have not yet been decided, and who were members of the "CSS," "LULAC," or "Zambrano" class action lawsuits. If you believe you may still be eligible for amnesty, check with an immigration attorney immediately.

Congress added an amnesty for Nicaraguan and Cuban nationals in a 1997 bill called the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA). Some provisions also benefit Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Eastern Europeans. The deadline for filing applications has passed, but check with an immigration attorney to see whether new opportunities have arisen.

8. Special Agricultural Workers

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 also contained an amnesty green card opportunity for agricultural laborers who worked in the fields for at least 90 days between May 1, 1985 and May 1, 1986. The filing deadline for these temporary residency applications was November 30, 1988. However, late applications may be accepted under rare circumstances. Check with an immigration attorney if you think you are eligible in this category.

9. Long-Term Residents and Other Special Cases

The law allows certain people who have lived illegally in the United States for more than ten years to obtain permanent legal residence. If you have been in the country illegally for more than ten years, you must show that your spouse or children -- who must be U.S. citizens -- would face "extraordinary and exceptionally unusual hardship" if you were forced to leave the country.

If you believe that you meet this requirement, you should consult a lawyer before going to USCIS to make an application. If you don't fall clearly into this category, you may cause your own deportation by making yourself known to the authorities. In fact, this remedy is realistically available only to persons already in immigration court proceedings. USCIS has no obligation to act on any other application, and it may sit in its files for years -- or until the law changes against you.

An alternate remedy called "registry" allows people who have lived in the United States continuously since January 1, 1972, to apply for a green card. To qualify, you'll need to show that you have good moral character and are not inadmissible. Your stay in the United States need not have been illegal -- time spent on a visa counts as well.

Finally, individual members of the U.S. Congress have, on occasion, intervened for humanitarian reasons in extraordinary cases, helping an individual to get permanent residence even if the law would not allow it.