Green Card Requirements
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has quite a few requirements that you must meet in order to obtain a Permanent Resident Card, also known as a Green Card or Form I-551. The Permanent Resident Card is the documentation you need, if you are an immigrant, to prove that you are a legal permanent resident of the United States, and therefore have the right to live and work in the country. Permanent Resident Card holders are still classified as aliens, but can apply for United States citizenship or naturalization after 5 years of being a Lawful Permanent Resident, or 3 years if the Green Card was received through marriage to a United States citizen, or 4 years if received through political asylum.
The Green Card requirements depend on the immigrant classification category you fall into. The immigration categories are divided up by a preference system, and then the petitions are placed in order of the date they were filed. In general, the process for applying for your Permanent Resident Card is divided up into three parts. First, a petition, usually filed for you by a relative or employer, must be approved by USCIS. You can file the petition yourself in the rare cases of immigration via investment, but most people have them filed by family members or employers.
Second, a visa number must be immediately available to you through the State Department – even if you are already living in the country. United States law puts limits on the amount of immigrant visa numbers that can be available or issued each year, so if a number is not available to you right away, you will be put on a waiting list. Immediate relatives of United States citizens do not have to wait for an immigrant visa number to become available, as they are always immediately available for such people – spouses, parents, and unmarried children under the age of 21. Other relatives and people applying for immigration via employment will be sorted through the preference system.
Once you are issued a number, if you are already in the United States, then you can apply to adjust your status to permanent resident, and therefore get your Green Card if your application is approved. If you receive your immigrant visa number while living outside of the United States, then you must go to the nearest American consulate to finish the process.