Buy a house, get a green card

Jim, Excellent IDEA!  Also at www.greencardhouses.com  and submitted to www.change.org site..  Let's all support it and vote it up so it gets to be on President Obama's list of items.

Josh

There are about 100,000 people stuck at last stage of employment based(EB2/ EB3 )green card process for more than 3 years now.

all of them are Legal tax paying employees who can easily put $200,000K downpayments as they have been working in USA for last 7 or 8 years and many what to buy houses and make US their home. But Red tape and lack of resouces doing paper work @ USICS is holding up.

Maybe hiring at USICS will help solve unemployment issues and giving green card to people held back at EAD for last 3 years will help housing prices in areas that have these workers starting the ecomonic engine.

Avg salary :

http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layouthtmls/swzl_compresult_national_IT10000001.html

Avg savings for downpayments for home of leagle resident for last 8 years :

$200,000k

Hope Govt will process their applications and help kick start housing and job industry.

some of these forign born legal residents were the people who in past have started great american companies like eBay, google, sun microsystems, borcade, aruba etc.

I am sure some of the new green card holders will start the next generation american companies too.

The idea is brilliant because it puts a value and price on that idea that Americans hold most dear...the simple fact of living in freedom in this country, more broadly known, as the "American Dream." We take the freedom we have everyday for granted, but i will tell you now, people all over the world will find money to buy every house on the market, if it meant a chance of joining the United States as a legal immigrant.

The $1 Million Dollar greencard is not as simple as it sounds, you don't just pay it and get a Green Card. You have to establish a business, invest the $1 Million in cash into it and provide full time employment to 10 americans.

hi

is that true if we buy a house and we get greencard ......... bcoz me and my parents having a  vistor visa B1, B2 ...... so if we buy house do we get a greencard ......... thanks

I completely agree with supporter2 - there are hundreds of thousands of current legal immigrants who would happily buy homes if USCIS would just get on and issue the green cards they have already qualified for. At the present time most of us are hired 'at will' and must leave the country within a matter of days if we lose our jobs, even though we have pending green card applications that we already spent thousands of dollars on and have already proven we are eligible for. Clearing the backlog and giving that added security to all of these people who are already proving they can support themselves and their families would be a much better idea than simply adding another few hundred thousand to the line.

Which brings up another point - what would the priority level be on these green cards? An application which currently falls into the immediate priority categories can still take over a year to be processed, those who fall into lower priority categories are looking at 5-10 years and longer. Are they proposing to put these people ahead of the current immediates, behind them to delay the lower priorities even longer, or put them at the bottom of the list so that they can wait in limbo for 20 years?

A solution i came across was to exempt EB categories(employment based)  from the numerical limit of visa numbers available every year if they buy a house and are already on work visa in US.

this way the money stays in the country and no new people come in.

an arguement was about the new 65000 h1 that come in every year. well if they can get credit with 1 month of credit history or if they bring 200k from their home country legally and have an answer for IRS. heck ya give them the green card.

I think its a good idea to jump start the economy.  I also think that in order to do that, Illegal imigrants (Buyers) should show their good standing in this country, paying their taxes and so forth, The question is, WHICH LENDER WILL APPROVE THEM??...Non-that I know.  So its more of a wishfull thinking.

I think this is a great idea, wish it would happen in Scotland, we then would not have so many living off state handouts.

This should only be for a short time ( a window of opportunity) to kick start the housing market.

Hi there folks,

I cannot believe this issue has been raised, i really would love to move to the US..I have some friends in Brookline MA, and i would buy a home there tomorrow, start work and put my son into school,  if i could. My motivation is to take my son to a school that could help him more with his language difficulties, unlike here in the uk the US has wonderfull facilities for kids with Learning difficulties. Wish these thoughts become a reality.

carla

I am on H1 for past 8 years, apply for my Green card through EB-3, but my PERM is in backlog and it might take another 15 years to get the GC, in 8 years period time, what ever I had saving, I put it in buying a home in New Jersey. I pay tax from Job, Mortgage and real sate tax. Now Housing market collapse, it is very hard to buy and sell home now, I might go soon out of status soon, because they give very hard time to approve my PERM, What are my option now, leave the home and go back to my country. Guess what, a country made of Immigrant, and if immigrant face this type of hard ship then who will invest in this country. I was so confident on legal system, but from my past 8 year experience with USCIS, my faith is left no more.

I would like to find out how to buy a property and get a green card in USA. is there any one can advise me on that

We would be swamped with Asians.  They are already lined up in their thousands to get green cards.  This would just open the doors to a way of live and values that are completely foreign to the USA.  They come from a society that live on scams, you dont think this would become a giant scam.  Also, immigration is currently barely controllable, but the family reunification would mean that we open the doors to unlimited immigration.  Sure the first few would buy a house, but the family members would swamp the local infrastructure, not many of the next generation or the follow on family would not rely on welfare, use up social insurance and medical facilities.  If anything, we need to return to European immigration of blue collar workers.  People who built this country through hard work, not pen pushers who come to live off the system.

Once a foreigner buys a home worth $500,000 and gets the 3 year residency visa can they renew this 3 yr visa indefinately ? if so then waht criteria will be set for the renewals? this visa will never lead to citizenship even if the person keeps renewing their 3 year visa for 10+ years? They should make it an investment of a few million dollars in real estate (in singapore it is 10 million for 5 years) and then grant the foreigners a life-time residency without any citizenship privileges with options of operating an enterprise of their own. I know that most investors like myself will be looking for a life-time residency if not a citizenship and for most of these solvent applicants the amount of money will not be the biggest issue- rather it will be how stable their visa status is??? I am not looking to invest $500,000 for a 3-yr visa which may or may not be renewable, I would rather invest 1 million (maybe even more) if it meant a life-time green card (even if it means only a green card for my future children and never a citizenship)

Great Idea , but how about the terrorist that has money and can put down 10 or 20 million down, and need's to enter the country to place a bomb in Our great nation ?  we can fix one problem but at the same time we may be opening pandoras box also.   And you know how is the INS when it comes to screening people before they enter the country, there is always that person that falls thru the cracks.