I'll bet most of you didn't know that it's possible to actually WIN a "green card" (gives you lawful permanent residency in the US).
Yep, it's true and the U.S. State Department's Citizenship and Immigration Services (CISS) gives away 50,000 of these green cards each year to residents of countries deemed to have low rates of immigration to the United States. They call this program the "Diversity Visa Lottery Program".
"What is the Diversity Visa Lottery Program? Each year, 50,000 immigrant visas are made available through a lottery to people who come from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. None of these visas are available for people who come from countries that have sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the past five years. The State Department's National Visa Center holds the lottery every year, and chooses winners randomly from all qualified entries. Anyone who is selected under this lottery will be given the opportunity to apply for permanent residence. If permanent residence is granted, then the individual will be authorized to live and work permanently in the United States. You will also be allowed to bring your spouse and any unmarried children under the age of 21 to the United States."
I sold a house a couple of years ago to a guy from Latvia whose wife had won one. He was a software engineer and they had two delightful kids. That's where I first learned about the green card lottery.
I'll never forget something he told me while we were talking during our home search. "Everyone wants to come to America." he said. It's because of the freedoms we enjoy here and take for granted most of the time because we've never been without them.
The lottery winners have to meet some other token eligibility requirements in addition to being lucky.
Your country of origin must not have had more than 50,000 immigrants to the US in the last 5 years. So Mexico and Brazil would be out but countries like Burkina Faso can win 129, Uzbekistan is eligible for 3,284, and Nauru gets 1.
Nauru is an interesting story in itself. This south Pacific island is a source of phosphate (that's about all it's a source of), is the world's smallest independent republic, has a population of 13,700, and is just over 5,000 acres.
There's also an education or work experience requirement. You must have a high school education or equivalent OR two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience to perform.
That's pretty much it to be eligible. The applications for the 2010 drawing have already closed so you'll have to wait until 2010 to submit your application for the 2011 lottery.
Lucky winners are eligible to bring their spouse and all their dependent children under the age of 21 along.
There are also several other avenues foreigners can take to get a green card; if you have a relative living here, marriage to a us citizen, adoption, and employment for "Persons of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics."
Let's face it folks, a lot of the world wants to come to the US because it's the "Land of the Free" (so far anyway) and still full of opportunities.
Most green card holders make marvelous, law abiding, tax paying, upstanding citizens.
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