What to do if you won the green card: 5 required steps

On May 7 2019 years you can check lottery results Green Card 2020 — ForumDaily I told all about the lottery in questions and answers. However, winning the lottery Green Card does not mean that you will automatically be given a residence permit in America. To obtain a cherished immigration visa in the passport, you need to go through several more stages, during which you can face unpleasant surprises. How to avoid mistakes that may cost you green cards?

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Step-by-step instructions for obtaining a US residence permit from ForumDaily.

1. Fill in the visa application form

The site Consular Electronic Application Center you need to fill immigration visa application form form DS-260. It is filled in English. In the questionnaire you need to specify personal data, marital status, provide information about the place of work, study, criminal record.

If from the moment of registration for participation in the lottery you have changed the family composition (got married, gave birth to a child), then new members of the family should always indicate in their form DS-260, otherwise you can be disqualified.

For each family member - a separate form of DS-260. This is an important nuance, and if you fill out one form for the whole family, you immediately leave the “get a green card” marathon.

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When the DS-260 form is full, the exposure page should be saved on the computer and then printed. It, among other documents, you need to take with you to the interview. The date of the interview will be sent to you after you fill out the DS-260 form.

Fill in the questionnaire better by myself.

2. Wait for an answer

First you will receive a letter with the following text: Has been received and routed to the appropriate group. This is a standard letter which means that your visa application has been received. And in 7-10 days, another email will arrive, this time addressed to you personally.

Here are options for what can be written in it:

Your forms have been processed. If you received such a letter, it means that your questionnaires are in the processing stage, which can last up to 4 months.

It will not affect the processing of your case. This means that, filling out the questionnaire, you did not specify the number of your business, but at the same time your application is still accepted for processing.

KCC to begin the processing of your case. It means that Kentucky Consular Center waiting for your questionnaires, but not yet received them.

The information. This means that you indicated in the request information that is different from what you gave when you filled out the form for participation in the lottery.

The DS 230 Part 1 You submitted for the principal was incomplete. This means that in your questionnaires found inaccuracies that need to be corrected.

It received a copy of the amount of mail processed at a time. or It is acceptable for your visa processing. If you received a letter in which one of these phrases appears, then your questionnaire has already been received, processed, and within a few weeks you will be given the date of the interview.

Your case number is now current for interview processing. This letter comes to those who find out the date of the interview in a few days.

Has been scheduled at ... In the letter with such text you will see the date of the interview itself.

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If you want to go to the Kentucky Consular Center yourself (Kentucky Consular Center), where all questionnaires are processed, and to find out at what stage your case is now, you can send a request to the email address: [email protected] or call 1-606-526-7500 from 7:30 a.m. to 16 p.m. At the beginning of the conversation, you must immediately give the case number (Case number), the country in which the questionnaire was filled in, the name, surname and date of birth of the winner of the lottery.

3. Collect documents

Bye-bye Kentucky Consular Center examines your questionnaires and sets the date of the interview, do not waste time. Collect and translate into English the documents that you need. All documents that are not in English, must be accompanied by a certified translation. No notarization or apostille is required.

You need to prepare originals and translations of the following documents:

1. Passport
2. Birth certificate
3. Diplomas confirming education
4. Employment history
5. Help that you do not have a criminal record. If you have lived in several countries, such references are needed from each country. If you have a criminal record, you can still qualify for a green card, but be sure to provide a certificate that you have already been punished.
6. Marriage / divorce certificates
7. For those who served in the army - military ID
8. Statement of account
9. Documents on the valuation of real estate
10. Help with the work that you are an employee / owner of the company.

4. Check your health

When you were given the date of the interview - it's time to get a medical examination. This can be done only in special certified centers whose addresses can be found at Online. The cost of this procedure is on average $ 215 for each family member planning to immigrate (in different countries the price may differ by $ 10-15), and vaccination is paid separately.

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Passing a medical commission is needed to determine if you or someone from a family member has any diseases from the list that restricts entry to the United States. It includes, in particular, diseases of a mental nature, the active form of tuberculosis, leprosy, and others. Before 2010, HIV was included in the list, but now this virus does not interfere with obtaining a visa.

The list of diseases that impede obtaining an immigration visa, consists of two lists that can be found here и here.

After passing medical examination you receive a sealed envelope, which must be handed over to the consul during the interview.

5. Pass the interview

The medical examination is over, the envelope for the consul is in hand, the interview date has been set. At the interview, you will be required to provide originals and English translations of all documents, the results of the medical examination and the invitation to the interview itself. On site, at the embassy, ​​you need to pay a visa fee - $330 for each family member. But this is not a guarantee that the coveted US visa is in your hands. An interview is no less important a stage than the preparation of documents or a medical examination. However, there is no need to specially prepare for it or read any scientific treatises or everyday advice on the Internet. You will be asked standard everyday questions.

The main goals of the interview are to make sure that the people who applied were the ones who came for the interview, to take fingerprints and check them with the database, to look at the results of the medical examination and to check the presence of all documents.

If you have been interviewed, you will be granted a semi-annual visa. It is during 6 months that all family members, or only the main applicant, will need to enter the United States, otherwise the visa will be canceled. Also, after passing the interview, you will be given a sealed envelope that you need to give to the officer at the airport.

An important point: if the main applicant is not able to travel to the US, then without him the family also can not enter the country.

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