Green Card: Overview, Timeframe, Price, And Varieties

The procedure could take some time if you’re ready to apply for a Green Card. Depending on the specific circumstances, the entire wait time will differ. 

The processing fees, category, and timeline of the Green Card are all variables of filing for a petition. Whether your sponsored family member is a citizen or lawful legal resident of the U.S., you must adhere to the proper procedure for acquiring one.

Green Card Overview

Having a Green Card allows a non-U.S. to be accorded U.S. permanent residency as a citizen. A Green Card is just a different label for permanent resident identification. Many individuals outside the U.S. also desire a green card to give anyone the liberty to live and work in the nation, notably Fort Worth TX.

U.S. citizens with Green Cards can travel to roughly 36 countries without a Visa. In addition, a U.S. Green Card can be utilized to obtain a U.S. passport. Although you are waiting for your U.S. passport, the strength of your current passport has already been increased by your green card. Although more solid than a U.S. passport, reasonably strong.

To get a Green Card, applicants must get their application authorized by U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS). In addition, the petitioner, on your behalf, must pay the application fees to the USCIS. 

Green Card Timeframe

Depending on what type of Green Card you’re seeking and where you’re applying (within Fort Worth, TX), the approval period for a Green Card can span from a few months to several years.

Submitting An Application Anywhere In The U. S.

The waiting period is approximately between 12 and 22 months for members of the family who apply from inside the state through modification of status. 

However, the process can be substantially longer, typically two years for marriages of Americans holding Green Cards, immediate families who are residents, and Green Cards received through occupation.

Submitting An Application Outside The U. S.

The current wait duration for partners and family members of U.S. citizens seeking through Consulate procedures from countries outside the state is 9–13 months. Country limitations apply to all other Green Card classifications, and processing times fluctuate significantly. More info.

A waiting period for spouses of Americans with Green Cards who apply from abroad is months.

Green Card Prices

Generally, there are two federal application fees if you petition for a Green Card:

• $1,760 for local submissions.
• $1,200 for global applications.

However, the cost of the medical examination in Fort Worth TX typically varies from service to service and is not covered.

Other Application Fees For A Green Card

You can be obligated to pay additional expenses during the procedure in addition to the biometrics and Green Card advance payment, such as:

Medical Examination Fees

People who want to migrate to the U.S. must undertake health screenings and immunizations. Before the appointment, you will have to undertake a medical exam. You are responsible for paying for the expenses on your own. The fee will vary depending on the tests the U.S. Embassy demands and how much a local health checkup might charge. 

Documentation Charges

You will be required to provide electronic or paper copies of your identity documents, such as your birth certificate, passport, marriage license, etc., as part of the Green Card application. When you attend the last Green Card appointment in the U.S. or at a U.S. Consulate or Embassy abroad, you must present original copies with you.

Green Card Varieties

The various types of Green Cards are diverse. However, the most specific categories are:

• Family.
• Employment.
• Humanitarian.
• Diversity Lottery.
• Longtime-Resident.
• Special Green Cards.

Family Green Card

Application for family-based Green Cards applies to families of American citizens and permanent Green Card holders. Partners, family members, siblings, and children are the qualifying family members on the ranking.

This category also covers widows who were married to U.S. citizens at the time of the citizen’s passing. To acquire a Green Card, widows should confirm that their unions were legitimate.

This is the same with partners of living U.S. citizens and current Green Card holders who request a marriage-based Green Card.

Employment Green Card

Under employment-based Green Card divisions, various personnel subgroups are entitled to apply for a permanent resident status card. In addition, their spouses and children may be candidates for a Green Card in some conditions, including Fort Worth TX.

Within a year, you might receive your employment-based Green Card. However, if you register in a prominent class that receives several applications, it could very well take between 4 and 6 years.

Below is a listing of the workforce divisions as well as the jobs that each classification involves:

• Priority personnel.
• Professionals with skills and expertise and higher degrees.
• Physicians.
• Professional, unskilled, and skilled workers.
• Special staff.
• Investors.

As per U.S. Services for Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS), global acclaim proves extraordinary skill. Therefore, your accomplishments must be documented and acknowledged in your profession.

Humanitarian Green Cards

Foreign nationals can enter the United States in a catastrophe or for other significant reasons when granted humanitarian parole.

Refugees & Asylees

By submitting a Visa application, anyone who encountered discrimination in their homeland because of their race, nationality, or political opinions can demand safety in the U. S.

Human-Trafficking Victims

Current survivors of human trafficking are allowed to reside in the nation for a maximum of four years, also with a T Visa. However, not everyone with a T Visa can remain for an extended period without a certificate from Government agencies.

Victims Of Crime

Whether they reside in the country legally or illegally, “severe mental or physical abuse” victims may receive refuge by petitioning for a U Visa. The victim’s petition must be approved by federal authorities to be granted a U Visa.

Abuse Victims

Survivors of domestic violence (violence or excessive brutality) can submit a Green Card application. Although women were the primary beneficiaries of this law’s development, abuse victims included parents and children.

Diversity Lottery Green Card

The American Government gathers submissions from six separate 

territories, including the Pacific, Asia, and Africa, and selects up to 50,000 at cluster sampling for a Visa lottery annually.

Only residents of Slovakia, Lebanon, and Algeria—countries with a record of minimal immigration —are eligible for the lottery. Any nationality may only receive 7% of the available Green Cards.

Although most lottery registrants still dwell in their home nation, they continue registering their entries. Others already possess a Visa status that allows individuals to reside in the country.

Longtime-Resident Green Card

Those who have actively lived in the U.S., including in Fort Worth TX, since January 1972, can petition for permanent residency through the registry method.

The applicant must fulfill each of the requirements below to qualify for a Green Card under the registry:

• They would have to submit I-94 travel documentation to establish that they arrived in the country on or before January 1972.
• They have “high personal integrity,” meaning they haven’t committed specific violence like theft, extortion, or murder. They have yet to leave the United States after arriving.
• They haven’t committed behavior that would render them “inadmissible.” These infractions include unlawful entry into the nation and overstaying a Visa’s validity over a six-month period.

Other Green Cards

The United States Government also offers a wide variety of additional Green Cards alongside the ones stated above.

For “special immigrants” with permanent residency cards, these include:

• Reporters.
• Clergymen.
• Residents of Afghanistan and Iraq who’ve already functioned in multiple roles for the U.S. Government.
• Individuals who have worked for an intergovernmental organization.

Income Restrictions For Green Card Sponsorship In 2022

The average annual income necessary to apply for a Green Card on the representation of a partner or a member of the family is $22,887. This one is considering that the sponsor, a resident of the U. S. is not working in the military and is merely sponsoring a single relative.

A family’s Green Card process uses the sponsor to undertake financial liability. As a result, your annual income as a sponsor generally equals the amount you declared on your most current individual income tax report.

Your gross annual income can come from a wide range of legal sources, including paychecks and salaries, pension payments, maintenance, child benefit, interest and dividends, and other sources of revenue.

Medlin Law Firm Green Card Lawyers

The migration process may be incredibly time-consuming and complicated because there are numerous steps in completing the official application and earning American citizenship. One of the most necessary, perhaps the most valuable, is securing a Green Card.

The first step toward becoming capable of living lawfully in the U.S. is frequently earning a Green Card, but achieving this on your alone can be complex. Fortunately, an educated lawyer can be of benefit. 

Reach out to The Medlin Law Firm attorneys now. They are committed to assisting clients and knowledgeable of the obstacles you would face in applying for a Green Card in Fort Worth TX.

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