Do I Need A Green Card To...

Resi12

Work and/or Live in the US?
I apologise if I am not making sense, I mean can I go to America and rent somewhere and get a job without a green card then apply for one after a certain amount of time?

I heard this is true? Hopefully. And if not how would I go about this, without the lottery? Sorry if I am asking a question been asked one hundred times but I feel very confused about green cards.

Benedict XVI

Resi12 wrote: »

Work and/or Live in the US?
I apologise if I am not making sense, I mean can I go to America and rent somewhere and get a job without a green card then apply for one after a certain amount of time?

I heard this is true? Hopefully. And if not how would I go about this, without the lottery? Sorry if I am asking a question been asked one hundred times but I feel very confused about green cards.

Hi
The only way you can get a Green Card is

Through the Lottery (it may be closed for this year)

Get a work permit (H1B or H2B) and then apply for the green card. You need to get a employer to sponsor you for a work permit.

Marry an American Citizen

You could tray and apply for one of these new one year work visas (see thread) and see what America is like to live in. However I have not seen any indication that you can apply for green card through it.

If you just go the the US and work you will be working illegally.

[Jackass]

And run the risked of being deported and barred from the country.

US is extremely difficult to get any sort of visa for unless you're a student.

It's insane really. As far as I know, if you're a UK citizen it is 10 times easier. They aren't eligable for the green card lottery as they get a certain amount by default anyway. I'm not sure how they give them out. We're lobbed in with all the sh*t countries to chance our arm. hehe

Maybe check to see if you have any British relatives and try and get citizenship for there. The only downside to this of course, is that you would have to become a British citizen...could you really live with yourself if you did that?

Resi12

Sigh I hate being from Ireland at times!

Do I need a green card to live there? Uhhh is there no other way, I am 17 btw

[Jackass]

Do you plan on going to college?

You could go over on a "J1" visa. I think it's for 3 months minimum but possibly longer. As long as you are in Full time Third level education you are eligable for this. You can work and live in the US on this visa.

Also, you would be eligable for the 1 year "J" US working visa when you graduate. You may be eligable for this already if you just did your leaving cert, but you might want to check that. I think simular to above though, if you are in full time third level education you can qaulify for this and when you finish college you can take this visa within 12 months to live and work in the US for a year.

Failing a green card or any of the above, you can travel and live in the US for up to six months on a tourist visa (which you get at the airport - you need nothing but a clean criminal record for this) but you can not work on this visa and could get deported if you did. I'm not condoning it, but it's not difficult to work "illegal" in the US and it is not frowned upon as much as overstaying your visa. I.E. if you stay more than 6 months in any one year you can be deported and barred. Note that being caught working illegally could have the same consequences.

The tourist visa allows you to live and travel for 6 months every year. So you can apply as many times as you want a spend six months there as many times as you want as long as it's no more than 6 months out of every 12 month period.

If you like North American big city life, consider Canada. It is extremely easy to get a visa to live, work and travel there for one year, no conditions and Toronto is the 4th biggest North American city after New York, Las Angles & Chicago. Vancouver is supposed to be an amazing city too, plus there are lots of places to travel to and explore and if you work during your time there you are a tiny plane hop away from New York and can pop down for a week or two with money and have the craic if you want, go back to Toronto, earn more money, go back down...if that's what you want. But when you get to somewhere like Toronto you wont want to leave. It's like New York but 10 times safer and the people are 10 times nicer. (so I'm told )

Benedict XVI

[Jackass] wrote: »

And run the risked of being deported and barred from the country.

US is extremely difficult to get any sort of visa for unless you're a student.

It's insane really. As far as I know, if you're a UK citizen it is 10 times easier. They aren't eligable for the green card lottery as they get a certain amount by default anyway. I'm not sure how they give them out. We're lobbed in with all the sh*t countries to chance our arm. hehe

Maybe check to see if you have any British relatives and try and get citizenship for there. The only downside to this of course, is that you would have to become a British citizen...could you really live with yourself if you did that?

[Jackass] wrote: »

Failing a green card or any of the above, you can travel and live in the US for up to six months on a tourist visa (which you get at the airport - you need nothing but a clean criminal record for this) but you can not work on this visa and could get deported if you did. I'm not condoning it, but it's not difficult to work "illegal" in the US and it is not frowned upon as much as overstaying your visa. I.E. if you stay more than 6 months in any one year you can be deported and barred. Note that being caught working illegally could have the same consequences.

[Jackass] – A lot of what you have said here is incorrect and unhelpful to the OP.


Green Card lotteries are not determined by citizenship but by place of birth. You cannot apply if you are born in the UK (Excluding NI) not if you are a UK citizen.

UK citizens do not have any better chance of getting Green Cards than Irish citizens.

You cannot get a ‘tourist visa’ at the airport. There is no such thing as a tourist visa.

When you go through US immigration (either in Ireland or the US) you fill out a visa waiver form to enter the US. The visa waiver allows you to stay in the US for 90 days (not 6 months) and you cannot work.

Resi12

Benedict XVI wrote: »

[Jackass] – A lot of what you have said here is incorrect and unhelpful to the OP.


Green Card lotteries are not determined by citizenship but by place of birth. You cannot apply if you are born in the UK (Excluding NI) not if you are a UK citizen.

UK citizens do not have any better chance of getting Green Cards than Irish citizens.

You cannot get a ‘tourist visa’ at the airport. There is no such thing as a tourist visa.

When you go through US immigration (either in Ireland or the US) you fill out a visa waiver form to enter the US. The visa waiver allows you to stay in the US for 90 days (not 6 months) and you cannot work.

Gosh, Was it always this strict?

Benedict XVI

Resi12 wrote: »

Gosh, Was it always this strict?

What's strict about it ?

carveone

Resi12 wrote: »

Gosh, Was it always this strict?

No, it used to be stricter. You used to have to apply way in advance for a tourist visa from the embassy in Dublin. It's way better now. If you overstay your 90 days, you get automatically flagged when you leave. This is Bad. Really Bad. I mean you will be imprisoned on your next entry.

Look, apply for the Diversity Visa (the lottery) at least. It's piss easy - If you've a digital photo it will take you 10 mins. You need to have finished your leaving cert but you don't need to be 18. Look at the new J visa, apply anyway. Something to do at least...

Benedict XVI

carveone wrote: »

If you overstay your 90 days, you get automatically flagged when you leave. This is Bad. Really Bad. I mean you will be imprisoned on your next entry

This is not true

If you enter the US as a Irish Citizen you enter under the visa waiver program. At the airport you fill out a green form (form i-94) that is stamped by immigration and a portion of it is stapled to your passport.

When you are departing, the airline line check in staff (not immigration staff) remove the green slip from your password, put it in a box with all the others from that flight and send it off to the immigration department in that airport.

The immigration staff then go through all the slips and fill out each persons 'departure date' on their system.

Unlike some other countries your passport is not actually stamped by immigration on departure.

If you overstay the 90 days and you go through the process above your 'departure date' will obviously be 90 days from your arrival date which will raise a flag with immigration.

If you overstay the 90 days and remove the green slip yourself before going to the airport check in, your 'departure date' will be blank on the system, which will also raise a flag with immigration.

If you have obviously overstayed (see above) then immigration can ban you form entering the US for 10 years there and then, no appeal (by going through the visa waiver program you also waive the right to appeal).

They will not imprison you.

If you have a 'blank' 'departure date' on the system immigration will ask you questions as to why this is the case and they may or may not let you in the next time you try to enter the US.

Dani Adelante

carveone wrote: »

No, it used to be stricter. You used to have to apply way in advance for a tourist visa from the embassy in Dublin. It's way better now. If you overstay your 90 days, you get automatically flagged when you leave. This is Bad. Really Bad. I mean you will be imprisoned on your next entry.

Look, apply for the Diversity Visa (the lottery) at least. It's piss easy - If you've a digital photo it will take you 10 mins. You need to have finished your leaving cert but you don't need to be 18. Look at the new J visa, apply anyway. Something to do at least...

I've tried to apply and it won't accept my picture. Says it's not 600 x 600 pixels. How do I resize it? I thought I did resize it but it still won't accept it.

carveone

Benedict XVI wrote: »

If you have obviously overstayed (see above) then immigration can ban you form entering the US for 10 years there and then, no appeal (by going through the visa waiver program you also waive the right to appeal).

They will not imprison you.

Ok, they will "detain" you until you are processed and deported. I was taking my opinion from an old boards.ie post I remember. Ah, found it.
Either way, I wouldn't recommend it...

If you have a 'blank' 'departure date' on the system immigration will ask you questions as to why this is the case and they may or may not let you in the next time you try to enter the US.

I entered the US from Canada with an I-84 still in the passport from the previous time. They gave me a lecture but as I had proof that I'd left (the Canadian entry stamp) I was ok. Was crapping myself for a while though...

I've tried to apply and it won't accept my picture. Says it's not 600 x 600 pixels. How do I resize it? I thought I did resize it but it still won't accept it.

Hum. Check the properties of your photo and make sure it's 600x600; there may be a limit on the number of colours too. If you don't have the right size you'll have to use something like Paintshop Pro or maybe an online editor like Pixenate (pixenate.com - first hit from a google search) to crop or resize to 600x600. If you use resize, preserve the aspect ratio!

I tried an example piccy in pixenate. Really easy to use - worth a go!