The law provides a yearly minimum of 140,000 employment-based Green Cards which are divided into five preference categories.

The most popular are Green Cards for professionals Baccalaureate, Master or higher Degrees as well as for skilled workers. In short, a prospective employer must be able to pay the proffered salary and show that there are no willing and qualified US residents to fill the vacancy. The procedure for physical therapists, professional nurses, and sheepherders is easier because it has been already determined that there is shortage of workers in those occupations.

Each year people from around the world may register to participate in Diversity Visa program which makes 50 000 visas available to them.

Each year people from around the world may register to participate in Diversity Visa program which makes 50 000 visas available to them. The registration period usually starts in October and ends in November. The results of the lottery are announced in early May next year. A registrant must have a high school education or its equivalent. To register for the program, a person needs to have a valid passport unless she is stateless or exempted from the requirement, and submit digital pictures of herself, her spouse and children in the process of registration. When the registration is complete, a person receives a unique confirmation number which is used to check whether she is among winners.

While all nationalities are eligible for processing of their refugee applications under priority one.

Some groups of special humanitarian concern identified by Department of State are also eligible for processing under priority two. Lautenberg program for certain members of religious minority groups in Eurasia and the Baltics provides that Jews, Evangelical Christians, and Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox religious adherents with clse family in the United States may establish refugee status in the U.S. by asserting a fear of persecution and asserting a credible basis of concern about the possibility of such persecution. They are eligible for in-country processing. Resettlement Support Centers prescreen the applicants and prepare them for their interviews with DHS officers. Their applications are considered under a reduced evidentiary standard.

The law defines a refugee as a person who is unwilling or unable to return to her own country.

Because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of political opinion, race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group. Some examples of persecution are detention, prosecution, imprisonment, illegal searches, confiscation of property, surveillance, torture. An application for asylum must be submitted within one year of the last arrival to the United States, absent extraordinary or changed circumstances.

Representation in Immigration Court

• Voluntary departure allows a person to depart voluntarily without deportation order
• Cancellation of removal – different standards for lawful and non-lawful permanent residents
• Adjustment of status – a person must be admissible to the US or have approved waiver of inadmissibility; waivers for refugees and asylees are considered under other, more generous, section of law
• Withdrawal of removal – a person cannot be removed to a country where her life or freedom would be threatened on account of political opinion, race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group
• Relief under article 3 of the Convention against Torture – a person cannot be removed to a country where most likely than not she would be tortured
• Renewal of Petition to remove conditions
• Temporary Protected Status