10 regarding honest ways to stay in the USA (1, 2 mode - lottery, political asylum)

Nearly 46 million people are now waiting for a residence permit in the United States, according to the UN. We have sorted out the most popular ways to become an American or obtain a residence permit in the United States.

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The ruble has depreciated, the war continues in Ukraine, and in Belarus the situation with freedom of speech continues to deteriorate, so many people from the CIS and Israel are seriously considering emigration. America is still top destinations.

Last year alone, three million people applied for a green card; the wait is long—on average 10 years.

The “Forum” explored how easy it is to arrive and legally stay in America, and how to choose the fastest way. Money is an important factor, but it is possible to get a card for free. The main thing is not to run into fraudsters, of which there are really many in the migration advice market.

A list of all ten ways see here.

Green Card (United States Permanent Resident Card) - an identity card that confirms the residence permit and the right to work for a non-US citizen. A person has the right to reside permanently in the country.

Green card entitles you to:

• enter / leave the USA
• work in any company
• start a business
• education benefits (apply for grants financed by the government; pay 3-4 less for tuition)
• opportunity to apply for citizenship
• social security at retirement
• enter without a visa in the 174 countries of the world (corrected: American passport gives such a right, but not a green card)

However, there are obligations. If the immigration service suspects that the person received the card “just in case” and does not live in the country permanently (missing for more than six months), you will have to prove contact with the United States or obtain a special permit for a long absence. Otherwise, the card can pick up.

1. Win the lottery

To suit: Anyone who has completed secondary education or vocational education, requiring at least 2-x years of study.

How long to get: once a year, from the beginning of October to the beginning of November, anyone can fill out a form on the official website Electronic Diversity Visa. Filling out the questionnaire takes about 10 minutes and already on the first Monday of May the computer randomly selects 50 thousand winners. If not lucky, you can try again.

Difficulty level: just

Cost: for free

It is important to know:

1. no need to know english
2. it is not worth paying intermediaries, everything is only through the official website

Cases

30-year-old Muscovite Igor Matyukh in the 2010 year won the lottery to receive a green card. He filled in the questionnaire with a friend at a student party. Both won, both moved, but only one stayed in America.

Matyuh recalls that at the interview he had to prove his financial viability in order to convince the consul that he would not qualify for state benefits. And then - buy a ticket and do what you want.

After staying in America for two years, Matyukh returned to Moscow. “The mere presence of a green card is far from a lucky ticket. The competition with native Americans in search of work and a place in the sun is too high,” he explains his decision. However, this story cannot be called complete, because the lottery green card is for life, and Matyukh can return if he wishes.

On the contrary, Ukrainian Lyubov Shipovich had to try very hard - she won the lottery only from the ninth time. But when I got the card in 2008, I used it in full: I got a job two weeks after my arrival, a year later I convinced the American manager to create a branch in Kiev. In addition, Shipovich organized a charitable organization in America, Razom, which last year helped raise more than 190 thousand dollars for Ukraine. But not going back. “Now I have two homelands,” she says.

Despite the huge number of lucky ones, there are victims in the lottery story. There are many scammers and organizations on the market that pretend to be official lottery sites.

The author of the material personally got into it and paid fifty dollars for her lack of foresight by submitting an application on the website of a certain company.

The result of this experience was the knowledge that the lottery does not have unofficial centers or representative offices. Registration in the lottery is free. The lottery organizers do not contact the participants by phone or e-mail. In addition, once having received your data intermediaries fill out a questionnaire every year without asking your permission, in the hope that if she wins, they will sell you a win (from $ 2 000 to $ 10 000). Information about the lottery is only here.

2. Ask for political asylum

To suit: those who are afraid to return home for a number of real or contrived reasons (political persecution, national or racial identity, faith, persecution of business, sexual orientation, family violence).

How long to lecture: you can ask immediately after the entry, even in the airport; the result is to wait from six months to a year, in difficult cases to 3 years

Difficulty level: average

Cost: from $ 4500 to $ 7500

It is important to know:

1. ban on visiting the homeland of 5 for years (breaking the law, many still travel through neighboring states on their internal passports)
2. You can work legally during the registration of a refugee status, a request for a job is submitted 150 days after the submission of an application for refugee status
3. There are a lot of intermediaries in the market
4. need a good lawyer

Stages of the procedure:

• application submission and case opening
• interview with immigration officer
• obtaining political asylum or transferring the case to an immigration court
• if the court refuses, the decision can be appealed before the federal court, the chances are very high
• the chances of obtaining status depend on the level of evidence, the harmfulness of the immigration officer and judges

Cases

Kiev resident Marc Kobylinsky is in the process of obtaining political asylum, at the insistence of a lawyer, does not specify specific reasons. He arrived in the United States about a year ago, three days before the expiration of the visa, filed a document asking for his refugee status.

According to Yuri Moshi, the founder of the American Visa Application Center, there are now a lot of Ukrainians, especially from the eastern regions, the Crimea, and from people who have worked with the past authorities and fear for their business.

Mosha himself went through the path of entrepreneurial emigration. In Russia, Yuri was the owner of a real estate business, at the peak of his development he became disliked by the authorities and decided to emigrate, asking for asylum. “However, 90% of those applying for asylum are not very rich people. As a rule, these are those who collected about 5 thousand dollars and decided to start life over,” says Mosha.

Kiev resident Mark, meanwhile, is preparing to confirm the reasons for his application to the immigration officer. After interviewing friends, he already knows that it is almost impossible to prepare for it. “Everything always depends on the human factor and the mood of the officer, the interview can last from a minute to an hour, the questions may not even concern the topic of the interview. And among the emigrants there are frightening stories about certain officers, whose status cannot be obtained and it is necessary to precisely prepare for challenging in court, ”he says.

The waiting time for an interview depends on the number of applications in the office at the place of residence. The most loaded requests from Russian tourists are California, Florida, New York.

According to lawyers, now this method enjoys unprecedented popularity. The leaders are Russia and Ukraine.

“You can apply for asylum directly at the airport upon arrival, but no later than a year after arriving in the United States,” says Irina Mazur, a lawyer at the Law Office of Francois-Ihor Mazur. Irina herself is Ukrainian, a lawyer by training, and has been living and working in America for the last 14 years. The office's practice includes a large number of political cases from Uzbekistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Belarus.

When applying for political asylum, it is very important not to fall into the hands of fraudsters - otherwise they will not only not help, but may also create problems with the law.

Therefore, the lawyer plays the main role. According to Irina Mazur, even consultations from lawyers unlicensed in the United States, which are widely offered on the Internet, are a violation of the law. “No self-respecting lawyer would waste time on free consultations. If you see such an ad, it’s definitely a trap and intoxication that will take all your money out of you and will definitely create a lot of problems with the law, especially if they write that the result is guaranteed,” assures Irina. It is rare to get a qualified answer from such free consultations. Usually, the first, but real consultation costs from $75-100, there are also special centers that provide the services of licensed lawyers either free of charge or at reduced prices, for example HIAS.

Mazur gives an example history David Lynn's acclaimed consultant from Philadelphia, who turned out to be not a lawyer, but a fraudster, and an illegal immigrant at that. His clients spent their last and very large sums of money and waited for years to be granted refugee status - and as a result, they lost the opportunity to stay in the United States, many were even deported.

We remind you: you need to be very careful with the choice of a lawyer and the story you are following. For example, lawyers offered the author of the material five different scenarios, from which you can choose any one at will.

Read about other ways to stay in the USA:

3. Marriage with a US citizen

4. Study

5. To get a job

6. Invest or open joint business

7. Reunite with family

8. Go to serve in the us army

9. Become a witness in a high-profile case

10. Stay illegal and wait for amnesty

Read also on ForumDaily:

16 Green Card Lottery Myths

How the US Department of State checks applications and photos of participants of the Green Card Lottery

How to fill in the form on the green card: detailed instructions

Registration for the DV-2022 green card lottery has opened: where and how to participate