The Comprehensive Report of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (1)

I believe many of us who are not born in the United States are very interested in immigrating to the United States. So, I tried my best to write this post to give you a comprehensive of the system of the United States Immigration Services. I will explain it in terms of various types of visas, immigration methods, scheduling, birth tourism, and finding a job in the United States after graduation for the international students. Although birth tourism is prohibited on 23rd January 2020, the practice of traveling to the United States to give birth is fundamentally legal.

I believe that after reading this post, you can have a detailed, systematic, and comprehensive understanding of immigration to the United States.

The road Map for Immigration to the United States

I will explain the process how to immigrate to the United States.

Step 1: Get a non-immigrant visa. There are 7 types of non-immigrant visas and 7 types of operations.

Step 2: Get a green card. How do you maintain a green card? There are 5 major types of mainstream immigration methods.

Step 3: Get a U.S. passport. Take an oath to become a United States citizen to obtain a U.S. nationality.

I will explain the concepts of green card, passport, PR, naturalization, scheduling, and others.

U.S Green Card

Generally speaking, it is for immigration success, which means obtaining a U.S. green card, but they don’t want to convert their nationality to become Americans.

U.S. green card = Permanent residency + their own nationality passport

After getting a green card, and after fulfilling a series of basic conditions, you can become a U.S. citizen and change to a U.S. passport. It is the third step of the process. And you will face the conflict of dual citizenship.

Based on the statistics, many of them have only taken 2 steps, not completing the third step. They still own their own nationality passport. So, they have to maintain a green card. You must use the United States as your primary residence. When overseas customs suspect that you don’t have intentions to stay in the United States, your green card will be canceled. For example, a Mexican who has recently obtained a green card has left the United States for more than 3 months and will be stamped with a warning seal by the customs when he returned to the United States. So, it is better to apply for a re-entry permit which allows you to live abroad for up to 2 consecutive years without returning to the United States.

But, the green card has a validity period, which is 10 years. It needs to be renewed when it expires.

2. Naturalization

Naturalization is the way that a non-citizen not born in the United States voluntarily becomes a U.S. citizen. The most common path to U.S. citizenship through naturalization is being a lawful permanent resident (LPR) for at least five years unless you get a green card by marrying a foreigner.

Naturalization = Citizenship + Passport Exchange

In the United States Immigration system, after becoming a U.S citizen, you can apply for green cards for your family. For example, your spouse, your children (unmarried under the age of 21), and three close relatives of your parents. They can apply for green cards for them without quota restrictions, and enter the United States without a schedule. However, your children (over the age of 21) or your siblings, you have to go through family preference immigration and enter the United States according to the prescribed schedule.

The codes in the table below represent the different categories of family-based green cards.

It is the sample of family-based immigration and reunification.

In the chart above, under the F1 visa, the date listed under “China-Mainland born” is “01SEP14.” This means that, if your relative was born in mainland China and falls under the F1 category, and you filed after September 1, 2014, you will still have to wait for your petition to be granted. If you filed before September 1, 2014, you are current, and you should not have to wait. If your relative is from Mexico and filing under the F4 preference, you will still have to wait if you filed your petition after January 15, 1999. It is the scheduling table for the family-based immigration category in May 2020.

3. The U.S. Immigration Schedule

The United States has an annual quota for each type of green card. If the number of applicants in a certain year is more than the number of available visa offerings, it is inevitable that there is a queue of applicants, and whoever comes first will take first. The government will notify applicants if they have been scheduled by publishing a new schedule around the 10th of each month.

You need to take note that applicants from different countries have different schedules. Take the schedule above as an example. There are 4 countries in the table that have their own schedules because these 4 countries have exceeded the standard in each category every year.