Okay, I’ve got an Aussie penpal buddy who, for some inexplicable reason has decided that he wants to move to the US. He’s got no idea of how to do this, and has asked me to help him find out how. I, of course, don’t know what to tell him other than it helps to be born here. So, what advice should I give him? He’s trained as an auto mechanic and general handyman, so I don’t know if that helps or hurts him.
I don’t know an awful lot about the process, but the INS should. Your friend should find the following links useful:
It ain’t gonna be easy. His best bet is to apply through the Diversity Visa Program (he’s missed the most recent deadline, but that page will give him the info he’ll need to apply at the end of the year). Apart from that, he’ll need to either have a family member or an employer in the US sponsor him; I assume he doesn’t have the former, and the type of work he does is unlikely to qualify him for the latter. I’m sure Eva Luna will be by to explain this all in further detail.
My recommendation is he try Canada instead; they have a points system for immigration that doesn’t require a specific job offer.
This is inaccurate. Anybody can sponsor you, they do not have to be family or (potential) employer. Trust me, I did one a few months ago for a friend’s niece (and she and her family are now here). There are two different sponsorship forms the US uses, one is binding, the other non-binding (on the sponsor). Diversity visa winners must get somebody to fill out the non-binding form. The form is a pain in the ass to fill out (letters from banks, employers, etc), but the sponsor doesn’t have to promise anything. About the only thing the form is useful for (in the eyes of the government) is that forms (visa, social security) get mailed to the sponsor and the immigrant must use the sponsor’s information (assets, income, etc) when applying for government assistance within the first 3 (?) years of immigrating to the US. Best I can tell, this is just a roundabout way of saying “new immigrants don’t qualify for government assistance”. Useful for politicians with no backbone, as they don’t have to write that into law.
One other thing about the diversity visa program: you can double your chances by getting married. Applications are individual but winners get to bring along their spouse and kids.
Of course, if your pal isn’t already married, it may be easier to just visit the US and find an American lass to marry him. Depending on how you do it, this can take some time. I have a friend who has been waiting almost 3 years for her hubby to get his visa processed, but she (and her hubby) did things the hard way (out of ignorance, BTW).
But you get more points for having a job offer, and even more points if you are already in country on a temporary work visa and have a job. The jobs you are qualified for, level of education (High School/Bachelors/Masters/PhD), fluency in English and French, etc all count. If you try Canada and are a little below the point threshold, the best way to boost your points is to go to school and/or learn French. This may take a while, of course.
You’re not talking about sponsorship; you’re talking about the I-134, Affidavit of Support form. Yes, family-based immigrants generally need to have someone swear to support them financially, but that’s not at all the same thing as “sponsoring” them in the sense of making them eligible to immigrate to the U.S. at all. I don’t know the particulars of the case you’re talking about, but nearly all immigration categories (accounting for about 80% of annual legal immigration) are heavily quota-based and do require the sponsorship of a close relative who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. Even then, there are backlogs in all categories but the one for spouses of U.S. citizens (who are quota-exempt) that are quite significant; the one for siblings of U.S. citizens was getting on 20 years the last time I looked.
Most of the remainder require not only a job offer from a U.S. employer, but a job offer for which it has been shown to the satisfaction of the state and Federal labor departments that there are no available U.S. workers, and that the employer is paying the prevailing wage for the position (which generally means that people with little or no formal education, and sometimes people with quite a bit of formal education, are going to find it quite difficult to prove that nobody who is already leggally employable in the U.S. is willing and able to do the job).
There are a few visas given out every year for people transferred in management positions from foreign companies to their U.S. affiliates, and a few for superstars in their fields (a Nobel Prize will pretty much get you a green card, and so will other evidence of similarly outstanding achievements).
Then there are much smaller categories: asylees, lottery winners, etc. Don’t rule out the lottery; yes, the chances of winning are very small, but I’ve personally known 4 people who won it, and none of them were clients, but one of my co-worers was one.
My best guess, though, for your friend? What ruadh said.
Eva Luna, Immigration Paralegal
P.S. More details on any of the above provided on request, once I’m back at work with my handy collection of IE bookmarks and other resources.
Diversity visa, which is what was being discussed. For that, all that is required is an I-134. There are other requirements for diversity visas - background check, health check, work skills, etc, but job offer hasn’t been a requirement for diversity visas in about 10 years.
And so was I (well, actually, my spouse). In the year that she won, the chances of a Canadian winning were 1 in 14. Since we each applied, it was more like 1 in 7 for us. After that year the chances have always been 0%, since that was the last year Canadians were eligible. If you were of Irish birth, your chances were basically 100%.
Diversity visas used to be allocated on a country-by-country basis, but as I understand it they are now allocated by region. Australia is part of the Oceania region. In 2004, 362 Australians won Diversity Visas. Looks like a whole whack of people from Fiji applied, as 738 visas (over half the 1312 visas available to Oceania) went to tiny little Fiji. Now you just have to guess how many Fijians applied to figure out the chances for anybody in Oceania.
The total adult population of Fiji is about 600,000. Part of the DV requirements is that you have a high school education or two years work in a job that requires at least two years of training. Want to take a stab at what that number is? Labor force was 137,000, but 70% of that was agriculture, including subsistence farming, and a bunch of other workers are in tourism jobs. Anyway, lets say all the non-farmers are eligible, so 30% of 137,000 or about 40,000. That jives with the typical third world “5% are educated” number. Lets say all 40,000 applied, that makes you chances 1 in 54 (or 1 in 27 if you are married). Somehow I doubt all that were eligible applied.
It looks like an Australian’s chances in the DV lottery are pretty decent, maybe even really decent. Fiji seems to be settling down since the 2000 coup, so perhaps less Fijians will be inclined to leave. And what the hell, it doesn’t cost anything to enter.
Another little thing about the Diversity Visa (i.e. lottery). It is run based on Government fiscal year end, which is September 30. The lottery takes place near the start of the fiscal year, and could start as early as October 1. I’d start looking then, not November, because there’s a chance that the entry period could be completed in October.
5cents, I specifically said that apart from the Diversity Visa, he’d need someone to sponsor him.
Sorry, I misinterpreted “apart from that”.