How to Get a Green Card

If you hope to obtain lawful permanent residence status in the United States, otherwise known as a green card, you'll most likely go about it in one of two ways: through your employment or a family member who is a permanent resident. There is also a lottery system, which grants 50,000 green cards per year to people living in countries with low immigration rates to the United States. In addition, you may qualify for permanent residence status if you are an investor or have been living in the U.S. continuously since 1972.
Either way you choose, you'll need to be careful to follow procedures set out by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in order to receive your green card, which will allow you to apply for U.S. citizenship after five years. Keep reading our guide to learn the specifics of applying for a green card in the U.S. depending on your particular circumstances. And in case you're wondering, the "green" in green card is a misnomer; the U.S. hasn't printed permanent residency cards on green paper since immediately following World War II

visa for non-amerika

Millions of foreign visitors travel to the U.S. each year. Others come to live here permanently. International visitors and immigrants add greatly to our nation's cultural, education and economic life. We welcome them. At the same time, we need to do everything we can to keep everyone here, safe. We believe in secure borders and open doors.

A citizen of a foreign country, wishing to enter the U.S., generally must first obtain a visa, either a nonimmigrant visa for temporary stay, or an immigrant visa for permanent residence. The type of visa you must have is defined by immigration law, and relates to the purpose of your travel. Having a U.S. visa allows you to travel to a port-of-entry (airport, for example) and request permission of the Department of Homeland Security, Customs Border Protection immigration officer to enter the U.S. A visa does not guarantee entry into the United States.
for more info visit http://travel.state.gov/visa/visa_1750.html

what is visa?

A visa (from the Latin charta visa, lit. "paper that has been seen"^[1]) is an indication that a person is authorized to enter the country which "issued" the visa, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport. Some countries do not require a visa or do not require a visa in some situations, such as a result of reciprocal treaty arrangements. The country issuing the visa typically attaches various conditions to the visa, such as the time that the visa is valid, the period that the person may stay in the country, whether the visa is valid for more than one visit, etc. The possession of a visa is not in itself a guarantee of entry into the country that issued it, and a visa can be revoked at any time.

A visa does not generally give a person any rights beyond the right to enter a country and remain there. Anything beyond those basic entitlements requires special permits, such as a residency permit or work permit.

Many countries require possession of a valid passport and visa as a condition of entry for foreigners, though there exist exemptions (see below for examples of such schemes).

Visas are associated with the request for permission to enter (or exit) a country, and are thus, for some countries, distinct from actual formal permission for an alien to enter and remain in the country.

Some countries require that their citizens, and sometimes foreign travelers, obtain an exit visa in order to be allowed to leave the country.^[2]

*source wikipedia

What is green card?

A United States Permanent Resident Card, also known as a green card is an identification card attesting to the permanent resident status of an alien in the United States of America. Green card also refers to an immigration process of becoming a permanent resident. The green card serves as proof that its holder, a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR), has been officially granted immigration benefits, which include permission to reside and take employment in the USA. The holder must maintain permanent resident status, and can be removed from the US if certain conditions of this status are not met.

Green cards were formerly issued by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). That agency has been absorbed into and replaced by the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS), part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Shortly after re-organization BCIS was renamed to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

An alien with a green card application can obtain two important permits while the case is pending. The first is a temporary work permit known as the Employment Authorization Document (EAD), which allows the alien to take employment in the United States. The second is a temporary travel document, advance parole, which allows the alien to re-enter the United States. Both permits confer benefits that are independent of any existing status granted to the alien. For example, the alien might already have permission to work in the United States under an H1-B visa.