How To Apply For USA 3 Years Visa For Permanent Residency in 2024-2025 - Application Process

Permanent Residence in the United States and Green Cards

Learn how to obtain a Green Card to become a permanent resident, how to check the status of your green card application, how to bring a foreign spouse to live in the United States, and what documentation you'll need while returning to the United States. Find out how to apply for the Diversity Visa Lottery and how to check your results. Here's how you can tell. 

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Permanent Residence in the United States and Green Cards

1. How to Apply for Citizenship in the United States
2. How to Enter the United States
3. If you don't renounce your citizenship, you'll lose it.
4. Permanent Residence in the United States and Green Cards

Learn how to obtain a Green Card to become a permanent resident, how to check the status of your green card application, how to bring a foreign spouse to live in the United States, and what documentation you'll need while returning to the United States. Find out how to apply for the Diversity Visa Lottery and how to check your results.

Apply for, renew, or replace a Green Card on this page.

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Authenticate a document from the United States for use in another country

• Immigrant Visa Program for People of Different Races and Ethnicities (Green Card Lottery)
• Sponsor a foreign spouse, a future spouse, or a relative from another country.
• Foreign Residents Returning to the United States: Travel Documents
• Green Card Applications, Renewals, and Replacements
• A Green Card (Permanent Resident Card) is a document that allows you to stay in the United States permanently.
• Provides you with official U.S. immigration status.
• You have certain rights and duties as a result of this document.
• Is essential if you wish to become a citizen of the United States.

Contact US Citizenship and Immigration Services if you have questions regarding applying for, renewing, or replacing a Green Card (USCIS).

Authenticate a document from the United States for use in another country

A legal document issued in the United States for use in another country may be required. Court orders, contracts, vital data, and educational degrees are examples of these documents. Signatures, stamps, and seals on these papers must be authenticated to be verified.

The procedure for authenticating a document varies depending on the document, the state in which it was issued, and other considerations. Check with the document authentication agency in your state. Also, go to the State Department's Authentications page (DOS).

You can receive an apostille if the country where you're submitting your documents is a signatory to the 1961 Hague Convention. An apostille verifies official seals and signatures on public documents. Birth certificates, court rulings, and a variety of other papers are authenticated by apostille. Learn more about apostilles and the process of obtaining them.

Call the DOS Office of Authentications at 1-202-485-8000 for more information, procedural details, or status. Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., you can call. Monday through Friday, appointment hours are typically 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET. The Office of Authentications, however, is not accepting in-person appointments at this moment due to COVID-19.

Immigrant Visa Program for People of Different Races and Ethnicities (Green Card Lottery)

Up to 55,000 immigrant visas can be granted each year under the Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) program. Foreign nationals from countries with low immigration rates to the United States can enter a random drawing for a chance to acquire an immigrant visa (Green Card). To learn more about the program, go to the State Department's Diversity Visa website.

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