Green Card - Importance of a Job Offer
Dealing with the "Public Charge" of Inadmissibility Pat 4
You must convince the USCIS that once you receive your Green card you are not likely to go on Public Assistance or welfare. A source of support must be shown for your accompanying relatives as well. You have 3 alternatives
- Submit written job offer from a US Employer
- Submit your own personal current financial documents
- Have a US friend or relative sign an I-134 Affidavit of Support on your behalf.
If this form is filed then no further documentation is required. The form I-134 guarantees that the signer is willing to take financial responsibility for you. USCIS offices normally insist that the person signing the I-134 be both your close relative and a US Resident.
If you can show that you are financially sound or have a job offer in the US an I-134 need not be filed for you. You should still however, fill out for I-134 for any accompanying relatives. Because you will have the income you should be the one to sign the Form I-134 taking financial responsibility for them.
STEP TWO: THE GREEN CARD APPLICATION
If you receive notification that your name has been drawn in the lottery, you must act quickly to apply for your Green card. If your spouse and children will be accompanying you they must each file their own green card application. A big part of the Green card application is proving that you are not inadmissible to the United States.
The biggest problematic issue is proving that you will not become a public charge.
The most important question at this point is where do you file the application ... at a USCIS office in the United States or at a US Consulate outside of the USA?
You should have already made this choice on your form I-140.
The answer is fairly easy if you are living outside the US ... you will file at a local US Consulate and attend interview there.
THE NEED FOR SPEED >>> SO SO IMPORTANT
If your immigrant visa isn’t issued before the end of the fiscal year for which you were selected your registration becomes void and you lose your chance for the Green card. The deadline is the end of the fiscal year for, and not in, the year you were picked.
The government fiscal years begin on October 1st and end on September 30th. This means that if you were selected after the registration period that took place between October and December 2006 and were notified between May and July 2007 your deadline for receiving an approval would be September 30th 2008.
Although this gives you just over a year to apply, attend your interview and receive approval, that is actually less time than it sounds like. In fact it is the typical processing time in many consular offices, so if one small thing goes wrong you could be out of the running. You MUST therefore file ASAP to be sure the processing is completed in time.
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