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How long did your U.S. green card take?

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Re: How long did your U.S. green card take?

#21

Post by tomh »

aristus wrote: post #7

My wife's took 5 months, but then she married a local. :) But before that was a three-year tragicomedy with all the problems you bring up, plus another nasty one: the "visa discount". Large employers love to cut your salary by 15-20% if they can get away with it. What are you going to do? Quit?

One company's unofficial policy was that they would let foreigners located in the US 'volunteer' at their job with no pay and decide to support their visa after three months of 'volunteering'. Not sure about the legality on that one...

Re: How long did your U.S. green card take?

#22

Post by white »

tomh wrote: post #19
seshagiri wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you please share the name of the lawyers you approached. You are quite true that the lawyers can make or kill it. The application process will be at least half the trouble if you have a good lawyer representing you. Also, I have heard the lawyer fee can run up to $10K. Is this true?

+1 to the comment about good lawyers making or breaking; my wife went with Paul Parsons located in Austin, TX - http://www.immigrate-usa.com/ - paid less than $10k (though it was not an EC1/2 case), and got a green card in less than 2 years time, despite moving to another state during this process and having to transfer the case. We consider ourselves lucky to have worked with him and his team.

My congrats. Case transfer between states often leads to unexpected delays. Actually, it's one of the most popular reasons to get your case delayed for years - it's being simply lost.

Re: How long did your U.S. green card take?

#23

Post by white »

semigeek wrote: post #18

4 months; I had a really good lawyer and qualified for EB1. Another thing to consider is what processing office you will go thru - the line is longer say in San Francisco than it is in Pittsburgh.

I assume you're not talking about the whole EBGC process. I don't believe it's possible to file a case and pass through all steps in just four months. And actually I never heard it can happen in less then 10 months.

Re: How long did your U.S. green card take?

#24

Post by makecheck »

Thanks for all of your responses so far. I guess my case is typical, which is what I was afraid of. :)

For those on visas, note that the limit on H1s goes away as long as you apply for a green card before your last visa expires. You are supposed to receive new H1s for as long as the green card takes.

Re: How long did your U.S. green card take?

#25

Post by krishna2 »

white wrote: post #6

Well anyway you still can play GC lottery. If there is a chance, why not trying it? ;) My brother was one among hundred of thousands who's used that chance.

The lottery is available to only certain countries' applicants. (Generally the countries which do not use the full quota due to lack of applicants).

Re: How long did your U.S. green card take?

#26

Post by krishna2 »

They say the third time is a charm - and I am on my third application - pending for about 3 years. The previous two times (first in 2001, the company went bankrupt. The second time in about 2003, but I left the company after a couple of years).

Sometimes, it is just a matter of luck. There was one in 1998 (when suddenly everyone got "current" and could move on with life). Then, there was a period in 2000-to-mid-2001 when the whole process took less than a year (for even high-demand countries like Mexico, India and China). There was a recent event (in July/August of 2007) - but that was only a partially-lucky event since many bad things happened after that.

Re: How long did your U.S. green card take?

#27

Post by krishna2 »

makecheck wrote: post #24

Thanks for all of your responses so far. I guess my case is typical, which is what I was afraid of. :) For those on visas, note that the limit on H1s goes away as long as you apply for a green card before your last visa expires. You are supposed to receive new H1s for as long as the green card takes.

Actually, only the first time that you ever apply for a visa, you are fighting the quota. Then onwards, you are just reusing the same number - so no worries there. [this is good until the 6 years of eligibility of h1].

Secondly, if your application had been pending for more than year, then you can keep your h1 alive (even after 6 years), and use your pending-gc-application to get h1-renewals.

Lastly, if you get past the first two and a half stages of the greencard process and you get an EAD and you have worked 180+ days with your employer, then, as Southwest says, you are free to move about the country. :)

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