First Step for Family and Employment Green Cards: The Visa Petition
by Attorney Ilona Bray
Family members and workers need an "invitation" from the U.S. before they can start their green card application.
Let's say you qualify for a green card through either a family member or a company that wants to hire you. Perhaps, for example, your father is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. Or perhaps you've been offered a high-level job, and the employer has already recruited for American employees and found none who are qualified, willing, and able to take the job you've been offered.
Can you apply for your green card yet? No, not quite. It's up to your family member or employer to start the process for you. They must do that by filing a form called a "visa petition" -- at which time they become your "petitioner," and you become a "beneficiary."
The Visa Petition
The idea of the visa petition is to prove your petitioner's interest in helping you immigrate, and that the petitioner has the right and ability to do so, based on the relationship between the two of you. If, for example, your mother, who is a U.S. permanent resident, filed a visa petition for you, she would need to include a copy of your birth certificate showing that she is really your mother, and of her green card, showing that she is really a permanent resident.
Or, for example, if an employer filed a visa petition for you, it would need to attach proof that a labor certification was granted, proof that it can actually pay the wages it's offering you (such as its tax returns or annual reports), copies of your college degrees if the job requires a certain level of education, and more.
The visa petition also takes care of some other details, like informing USCIS whether you will be continuing with your application through a consulate outside of the U. S. or through a U.S.-based USCIS office.
The Waiting List
Once your visa petition has been approved, it serves another important function: It establishes your place on the waiting list, if you're applying in a category where only limited numbers of green cards (immigrant visas) are given out each year. (That applies to almost everyone except the immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and certain highly qualified workers.)
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