Permanent Resident is the status received after you complete all of your processing of your applications and obtain your residence visa - Green Card.

       You are permitted to remain in the United States indefinitely with
           a green card.
       You are permitted to work in any job that you can obtain, and you may start
           a business
       You must pay taxes on you “world-wide” income on an annual basis
       You are permitted to leave the United States and return in the same status
            with a green card
       You must continue to “reside” in the United States. This means you must
           live most of the time in the United States most of the time and have
           significant ties to the United States. With special permission
       you may leave for up to two years. (Reentry Permission)
       You can file for citizenship after five years if you have completed requisite
           residence periods in the United States. Citizenship allows you to vote
           and obtain a U.S. Passport, while your status as permanent residence with
           a green card does not.

 

History of the Green Card Lottery Program

The diversity visa lottery to win green cards was a program by which a category of immigrants from underrepresented countries and those adversely effected by the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965 (P.L. 89-236) were to receive a special immigration benefit. In 1986 the United States Congress attempted to assist recently disadvantaged immigrants with an emphasis on persons from the Irish Isles obtain some special way to immigrate and receive a green card to the United States. The sponsors of the Legislation, (among them prominent Irish-American members of Congress) devised a lottery program that would grant green cards to persons from otherwise underrepresented countries. Since that initial program, changes have been made. The congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is also known as the Diversity Lottery program or the Green Card Lottery. It is administered on an annual basis by the U.S. Department of State and conducted under the terms of Section 203© of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Section 131 of the Immigration Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-649) amended INA 203 to provide for a new class of immigrants known as “diversity immigrants” (DV immigrants).