Green Cars is a way of becoming a resident of the United States and each year, the U.S Department of State offers up to 50,000 chances for Green Card applicants. The whole process is done online and if you are lucky you can be selected to move to the United States.
Categories of Green Card
There are many categories of Green Card that one can use to move to the U.S as long as you meet the eligibility requirements.
- Employment Green Card
It is a Green Card offered to individuals who have been offered a job opportunity in the United States. The employer has to convince the Department of State that there is no qualified individual in U.S by providing a labour certification document.
- Family Green Card
This is available to individuals who have a close family residing or a citizen in the U.S and you would wish to reunite with them. Only immediate and close families are allowed such as spouses, children, parents or siblings.
- Refugee or Asylum Green Card
This type of Green Card is available to individuals who have been offered refugee status or asylum due to reasons such as war, recital discrimination, political or any other reasons like those. Asylum is for people who are already in the US due to those mentioned reasons and are afraid to go back to their countries.
- Diversity Visa Program Green Card
This is available through Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, popularly known as Green Card Lottery. It selects individuals randomly from selected countries with low immigration to the US. It is the most popular of all Green Card types.
- Green Card through Registration
Those who were residing in the U.S since before January 1st 1972 can register for Green Card.
- Special Immigrant Green Card
- Human trafficking and Crime Victims Green Card
- Victims of abuse green card
Requirements for eligibility of Green Card Lottery
Since this is a program that is carried out each year,the requirements may differ each year. It is then important to go through the official guidelines well before applying.
Here are some of the common requirements for U.S Diversity Lottery or Diversity Immigrant Visa Program;
- Must be from listed eligible country which changes every year.
- You must have a high school education by way of KCSE certificate or Diploma certificate.
- You can alternatively have two years experience in the past five years in a qualified profession.
- Must be above 16 years to show that you have completed the 12 years education requirements.
Requirements for Green Card Application
1. Passport size photo.
This is a photo of your current self and must have these features;
- Light an neutral background
- Full color
- No spectacles or sunglasses, non religious headgear
- Must not be older than six months. Be reflect your look up to six months back.
- If you had participated before, do not use a photo you had used.
- Look direct into the camera, not sideways.
- Do not extract a photo from your passport or identity card.
- Must be of size 300dpi, 5×5 cm, 600×600 pixels, JPEG file.
2. Birth certificate or National ID
You must provide either a birth certificate or your national identity card.
3. Passport
An applicant must have a passport that will not expire for at least six months after the intended period of stay in the U.S. However, this requirement was scrapped off for the 2023 so now you can apply without the passport and process it later.
4. Fill out application form
One must complete and submit the online Diversity Visa Application form on the US Department of State website which is https://dvprogram.state.gov/
