usmove

Hi,

I have a question regarding which country do i fall for Green card visa. I was born in India, then moved to UK in 2000 and naturalized as a British Citizen in 2006. In October 2011 I moved to US on L1 visa. My company is willing to apply for GC and they may apply in EB2 category and would like to know which country visa category I would belong to, since I’m UK citizen I’m assuming my visa will be charged to Other counties(not to India), as you understand this will make a huge difference to the visa wait times.

Thank you so much for your time and would really appreciate your advice.

Regards

christmasoompa

Country of birth according to this - http://www.immihelp.com/greencard/im...sa-number.html

HTH.

teza

I thought India doesn't allow dual citizenship?

vicdupreez

I agree... You will probably unfortunately be charged to India, since this is where you were born. My L1 actually states that I was born in South Africa, and I expect that I will need to have it stamped in my South African Passport, even though I have been a British national with a British passport for 8 years.

civilservant

Yep - you're Indian for that purpose I'm afraid.

ian-mstm

My visa indicated I was born in the UK, but it was put into my Canadian passport - because that's where I was living when I applied. One has nothing to do with the other.

Ian

MarylandNed

Read this:
http://www.uscis.gov/tools/glossary/...-chargeability

"Chargeability is usually determined by country of birth. Exceptions are made to prevent the separation of family members when the limitation for the country of birth has been met."

vicdupreez

Interesting, thanks Ian. I still would prefer it going in my South African Passport though since that gives the useless little green book a purpose

Vic

ian-mstm

!!

Ian

superkruz

Vic, my US visa was put in my Australian passport although I was born in South Africa (and also have one of those "green books" that I pretty much only use when travelling to SA). As Ian pointed out, the one has nothing to do with the other.

S Folinsky

General comments: chargeability is based upon country of BIRTH not citizenship.

There are rules of cross-chargeability to keep families together. For example, lets say that OP married an Englishman. In that case, OP and spouse could be charged to the world wide quota provided they enter the US together.

But the general rule is one charged to country of birth.

Further point -- once the immigrant process has been started and is pending for over a year, the time caps are taken off the H-1b stay.

maulajatt

If you were born in India, no matter what citizenship you have, your GC will be in EB2-I, and unfortunately you will have to wait for a long time to get GC. However, if your spouse was born in any country other than India, China, you can explore something called cross chargeability.

Also, as mentioned by S Folinsky, if your immigration is pending for a year then H1B time cap is removed, actually that will be the case if First step (PERM) is pending still pending for over a year, if you already have approved I-140 then the one year does not come into picture and you are entitled to 3 year extensions beyond 6 year H1b cap.

usmove

Thanks for the reply

yes, that's correct, India doesn't allow dual citizenship and I do not possess Indian passport anymore.

and my L1 visa is stamped in My British passport.

civilservant

And, as has already been noted, that is irrelevant.

You are Indian by birth.

usmove

Thanks for the reply.

since India doesn't allow dual citizenship, I have only one(British) passport since 2006 and my L1 visa is within my British passport.