Immigration Site

Hi,

I dont know how to make this decision perfectly. What type of Green Card should I apply? Please help.

I just got my H1b for three years (Oct 2010 to Oct 2013) and have been married to a US citizen for 5 months.

Should I wait for another 1.5 years to apply for a permanent Green Card?or should I apply for the conditional green card, then wait for a while(how long) to move to the 10-year green card? or should I apply through my job?

Thanks a lot!!!

It depends on your longterm desires. You could become an LPR faster through your marriage and become eligible to naturalize faster. After the conditions are lifted after the I-751, all the conditional time counts towards naturalization. If you dont care about that, let your employer foot the bill.

If you are in EB2 India/China, or EB3 (anywhere), a green card through your company is likely to take ridiculously long (over 5 years).

Whether you want to go ahead and apply for the marriage-based GC now or wait 1.5 years is based on your priorities of avoiding cost and hassle vs. getting the GC sooner (and citizenship sooner). Only you know what your priorities are.

Apply based on marriage now, youll probably get the GC early next year, and your citizenship clock will start counting next year, but youll have another process (I-751) in 2013 to convert to the 10-year card. Wait 1.5 years, and youll directly get the 10-year card and avoid the I-751 process, but youll get the GC around mid- to late 2012.

It depends on your longterm desires. You could become an LPR faster through your marriage and become eligible to naturalize faster. After the conditions are lifted after the I-751, all the conditional time counts towards naturalization. If you dont care about that, let your employer foot the bill. thanks so much BigJoe, I do think it is time-consuming since I want to get my LPR ASAP(dont really care about naturalization).

Is it better to apply for the conditional GC now or wait to directly apply for the real GR with no condition?