Hi,
Correct me if I\'m wrong, but after 5 years of legal residence in the US (H1B is legal residance) you become eligible for GC. So, if you apply for GC after 5 years, problem should be solved (provided INS approves GC). If this is how things work, why don\'t people apply for GC? It seems to me that a whole lot of people face the problem of having to go out of US for a year. There are so many other ways to remain legally in US, like EB program, GC (mentioned above), getting married for US citizen, having a kid born in US... How come those possibilities are not considered? I\'m confused...
Guzicar
Correct me if I\'m wrong, but after 5 years of legal residence in the US (H1B is legal residance) you become eligible for GC. So, if you apply for GC after 5 years, problem should be solved (provided INS approves GC). If this is how things work, why don\'t people apply for GC? It seems to me that a whole lot of people face the problem of having to go out of US for a year. There are so many other ways to remain legally in US, like EB program, GC (mentioned above), getting married for US citizen, having a kid born in US... How come those possibilities are not considered? I\'m confused...
Guzicar
I don\'t know where you got the idea that you can apply for a green card after 5 years of residence in the U.S. Changing from a non-immigrant (like an H-1B) to an immigrant status takes a lot of time and hard work. And H-1B holders have only a total of "six" years allowed to stay and legally "work" here in the U.S. You could probably change to a different visa category which would allow you to stay "legally" here in the U.S., but not "legally" allowed to work (like H-4, H-1B\'s dependent). H-1B holders (especially those whose time is running out) are really after the employment authorization. Once they get their green cards, then they are now "immigrants" or "permanent residents" in the U.S. and can continue to legally live and work here. Hope this helps.