3. Preferred Employees and Workers

A total of 140,000 green cards are offered each year to people whose job skills are needed in the U.S. market. In most cases, a job offer is also required, and the employer must prove that it has recruited for the job and not found any willing, able, qualified U.S. citizens or residents to hire instead of the immigrant. Because of annual limits, this is a "preference category," and applicants often wait years for an available green card. Here are the subcategories:

Employment First Preference. Priority workers, including:

• persons of extraordinary ability in the arts, the sciences, education, business, or athletics
• outstanding professors and researchers, and
• managers and executives of multinational companies.

Employment Second Preference. Professionals with advanced degrees or exceptional ability.

Employment Third Preference. Professionals and skilled or unskilled workers.

Employment Fourth Preference. Religious workers and miscellaneous categories of workers and other "special immigrants" (described below)

Employment Fifth Preference. Investors willing to put $1 million into a U.S. business -- or $500,000 if the business is in an economically depressed area. The investor must also employ at least ten workers.

Also see U.S. Immigration Made Easy, by Ilona Bray (Nolo).

4. Green Card Lotteries: Ethnic Diversity

A certain number of green cards (currently 50,000) are made available to people from countries that in recent years have sent the fewest immigrants to the United States. Also see U.S. Immigration Made Easy, by Ilona Bray (Nolo).

5. Special Immigrants

Occasionally, laws are passed making green cards available to people in special situations. The current special immigrant categories are:

• clergy and other religious workers for legitimate religious organizations
• foreign medical graduates who have been in the United States since 1978
• former employees of the Panama Canal Zone
• foreign workers who were longtime employees of the U.S. government
• retired officers or employees of certain international organizations who have lived in the United States for a certain time
• foreign workers who were employees of the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong for at least three years
• foreign children who have been declared dependent in juvenile courts in the United States
• international broadcasting employees, and

• certain members of the U.S. Armed Forces who enlisted overseas and served 12 years.