5 ms·

Just curious... How long did it take to get the green card once you got the H1B visa?

lewstherin 14y ago
I think it depends on the country. For folks from India, it usually takes at least 5 years.
jholman 14y ago
IANAL. Asking someone else is not useful to you, because there are several buckets into which one can fall, that have different waiting times. As I understand it, there are two questions of timing: how long will an applicant have to wait until given an immigrant visa number, and how long will it take to turn the immigrant visa number into a permanent residency. The latter is, I believe, consistent across buckets but varies over time, depending on the wheels of bureaucracy. It's a year or two, I think? The former, however, depends on your level of training and country of birth. The wikipedia page is pretty good, in particular a few sections: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_%28United_States%29#Application_process http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_%28United_S... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_%28United_States%29#Immigration_eligibility_and_quotas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_%28United_S... In the latter, note the difference between EB-3 and EB-2, and note the bolded footer (b). EDIT STARTING HERE: Oh, this helps too: http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_5885.html http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_5885.html Depending on country of birth, if you have a BSc you're looking at 5-11 years of backlog. If you have a higher degree or 5+ years of "progressive" experience you're looking at 0 years of backlog, except 5 years for Chinese and 9 years for Indians. If you are doing family-based immigration, some category/nationality combinations are only just getting around to applications created in 15OCT98 (Philipinos and Mexicans are worst off here).
radicalbyte 14y ago
Planet Money covered it recently (http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/15/172108399/episode-436-if-economists-controlled-the-borders http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/15/172108399/episode-...). Time varies based on country of origin. Each country is allocated a fixed number of spots, and these spots of of similar size for all countries. So, if you're coming from a small country (i.e. Iceland) it's easy. Coming from India/Mexico, then you'll have to wait a while..
eshvk 14y ago
I got my green card in 2 months from application to interview. On the other hand, my green card was completely unrelated to the H1B visa. I switched from a student visa to the H1B visa for other reasons. I however did the math to see how long it would take for a company to sponsor me and it was roughly 2 years ( I don't fall into the Indian/Chinese bucket that has decades of waiting..)

I think it depends on the country. For folks from India, it usually takes at least 5 years.

IANAL. Asking someone else is not useful to you, because there are several buckets into which one can fall, that have different waiting times. As I understand it, there are two questions of timing: how long will an applicant have to wait until given an immigrant visa number, and how long will it take to turn the immigrant visa number into a permanent residency. The latter is, I believe, consistent across buckets but varies over time, depending on the wheels of bureaucracy. It's a year or two, I think? The former, however, depends on your level of training and country of birth. The wikipedia page is pretty good, in particular a few sections: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_%28United_States%29#Application_process http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_%28United_S... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_%28United_States%29#Immigration_eligibility_and_quotas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_%28United_S... In the latter, note the difference between EB-3 and EB-2, and note the bolded footer (b). EDIT STARTING HERE: Oh, this helps too: http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_5885.html http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_5885.html Depending on country of birth, if you have a BSc you're looking at 5-11 years of backlog. If you have a higher degree or 5+ years of "progressive" experience you're looking at 0 years of backlog, except 5 years for Chinese and 9 years for Indians. If you are doing family-based immigration, some category/nationality combinations are only just getting around to applications created in 15OCT98 (Philipinos and Mexicans are worst off here).

radicalbyte 14y ago

Planet Money covered it recently (http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/15/172108399/episode-436-if-economists-controlled-the-borders http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/15/172108399/episode-...). Time varies based on country of origin. Each country is allocated a fixed number of spots, and these spots of of similar size for all countries. So, if you're coming from a small country (i.e. Iceland) it's easy. Coming from India/Mexico, then you'll have to wait a while..

eshvk 14y ago

I got my green card in 2 months from application to interview. On the other hand, my green card was completely unrelated to the H1B visa. I switched from a student visa to the H1B visa for other reasons. I however did the math to see how long it would take for a company to sponsor me and it was roughly 2 years ( I don't fall into the Indian/Chinese bucket that has decades of waiting..)