US residency on EAD???

[EdmontonOilers]

Hi guys,

My fiancee is almost finished her nursing degree in Canada. She has been offered a job in the US as an RN by several companies in the US. She is very interested in one which will petition for her to get her a green card after she works with them for 3 months under a TN visa with satisfactory performance. After she petitions for her greencard and waiting for it she will be working on an Employment Authorization Document (EAD). By the time she petitions for her greencard we will be married and the company says that her spouse (me) will be able to get an EAD the same time as her.

I am a Canadian going to medical school in Ireland and Im hoping to do a residency in internal medicine in the US. My questions is, can I do my residency in the US on an EAD or do I need an actual green card to do my US residency? I understand that I would need to renew my EAD every year but could I continually renew my EAD each year while I complete my internal medicine residency in the US which I hope to get? My fiancee was told that once she gets her EAD I will get my EAD, and once she gets her greencard, I will get my greencard - assuming she fills out the appropriate documents and includes my name in them. We are planning on hiring a personal lawyer to help us with things.

There is a good chance that I will not get my greencard through her before I apply for my residency in the US so I am hoping I can do my residency on an EAD because she was told that she can get her EAD within 90-120 days after applying. I am sure I will be able to get an EAD before interviews for my US residency. Doing my residency on an EAD would be much better than trying to get an H1-B or a J-1 to do my residency so Im hoping it will work out.

So in conclusion, can I do a US residency on an EAD or must I have an acutal greencard?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks very much

 

[raj121b]

You can do residency on an EAD. The only thing is some programs might not exactly know what it is, so you would have to explain it.

 

[hadron]

> can I do my residency in the US on an EAD

Yes.

> or do I need an actual green card to do my US residency?

No.

> I understand that I would need to renew my EAD every year

They might give you a 3 year EAD. But generally, yes, every year you will have to shell out $175 to renew your EAD. But is an online form and not very complicated once you have your first EAD.

> My fiancee was told that once she gets her EAD I will get my EAD,

If you are on her petition, yes.

> and once she gets her greencard, I will get my greencard -

correct.(unless you have some dead bodies in your cellar such as illegal stays in the US, overstays on visas, unpaid federal parking tickets etc.)

> We are planning on hiring a personal lawyer to help us with things.

As a RN, she might be able to negotiate for the employer to pay the immigration attorney. For them it is pre-tax money, for you its much harder to claim it on the tax return.

> There is a good chance that I will not get my greencard through her
> before I apply for my residency in the US

Why are you guys not going through 'consular processing'. You might be able to enter the US with greencards, avoiding the EAD issue alltogether.

> Doing my residency on an EAD would be much better than trying to get
> an H1-B or a J-1 to do my residency so Im hoping it will work out.

AMEN, AMEN, AMEN !

Some residency directors might not know about EADs. On ERAS you just enter 'immigrant' or 'green-card'. The employer is actually prohibited from discriminating against you based on the fact that you have an EAD and not a green-card. There are stiff fines for employers who refuse to accept a bona-fide EAD.

Don't loose too much time on this. There is a special 50thousand green-card quota for RNs and respiratory therapists. These numbers are going fast as all of the philippines seems to have a nursing degree these days. You don't want to be stuck in the green-card waiting game that many professionals from india and china are stuck in right now.

You are a lucky dog.