Applying for Green Card during PhD

[virtua]

Can I apply for Green Card during my PhD? Who has exeperince with that? How does the overall process look like?

[fuzzylogician]

Forgive my question, but since I answer many of yours, I have to ask, do you even try googling for the information before you post here?

[virtua]

No problem, it is okay, 

Yes, I google every question before I post it here, but that doesn`t mean that I find an answer on Google specifically to my question, the thing is I usually find a lot of results that do not fit my case or there are some other problems with them.

[fuzzylogician]

But you don't give us enough information to know what your case is, so you ask extremely broad questions. Part of getting help is knowing how to ask. Help us to help you. You know you get detailed answers here, but sometimes it feels like we are spending our time telling you things that the first hit of any google search will tell you, or are most likely irrelevant to your specific situation. 

 

I assume you aren't actually eligible for a green card through any venue other than winning the DV lottery, if your country of birth makes you eligible. More information, e.g., on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity_Immigrant_Visa and on the State Department website: http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/diversity-visa/instructions.html. If there is another reason why you might be eligible for a green card, tell what it is. In general, students aren't able to apply for a green card and the time you spend living in the US as a student doesn't count toward anything. If/when you get your first job in the US, after graduating, you can look into self-sponsorship for a green card, but that's not relevant to your question since you won't be a student at that point and we're talking at least 5 years in the future. Similarly, you may be able to get your employer (for your imaginary job 5 years in the future) to sponsor you for a green card (this is better than self-sponsorship). Or you might fall in love with an American citizen and get citizenship that way. Obviously, none of those things are something to plan on now.

 

You can read about the process by simply googling about it,  you can learn about applying as a student too. Maybe someone who's done it will come along and share personal stories here, but if you google e.g. "dv lottery f1 student" you'll find lots of relevant posts and questions in immigration-related fora, which are really much better equipped to answer your questions than we are.

[TakeruK]

The F-1 and J-1 student statuses are non-immigrant class visas so there is no path to permanent residency (PR) / green card as a F-1 or J-1. On these statuses, I think the two most common ways are to: 1) gain PR through marriage or a family member or 2) gain PR through the Diversity Visa lottery. Otherwise, you can seek an immigrant-class visa after you finish your studies (e.g. H1-B ).

Edited July 18, 2015 by rising_star
to fix smiley face

[ExponentialDecay]

I don't think there is a single Green Card immigration case out there that hasn't been covered somewhere on the internet. There's even a handy flowchart floating around.