Or an advanced degree in quantitative sciences from reputable schools here and abroad. Banks and pharmaceutical companies hire foreigners with these qualifications in droves.

Marrying a US citizen is NOT the fast, easy way to get a green card as it used to be. My cousin married a French lady last January and the last I heard she still doesn't have a green card. She spends as much time as possible in the US on a tourist visa, but she has to go back when it expires.

My cousin and his wife dated for 10 years before getting married, and last year they had a daughter. I think it s/b obvious to the INS this marriage is not a sham to get her a green card.

P_M, (See my post above.) It's been my experience that INS thinks everyone's marriage is only to get a green card. Good luck to your cousin!

It (Green Card) was a cute movie.

I've had 3 friends that won the green card lottery. My best friend who is from New Zealand, another friend from Australia and another from Russia. Of course they were also really well educated (scientist, pediatric neurologist, and another scientist). We think it may not be a "true" lottery but you can give it a try...

I know 2 very well-educated former grad school mates who went on to obtain PhD's in different fields. One was an Aussie and the other was Polish. They submitted lottery applications 2 or 3 times each and none of them won the green card lottery.

Their assessment was that the lottery was "fixed".

British citizens cannot enter the "diversity visa lottery" since their country is not underrepresented in the USA.

A student visa only allows a person to work for 1 year past graduation, after which they must be sponsored by their employer in order to stay. The cap on advanced degree H1B visas for fiscal year 2007 was reached in late July of 2006.

Another way in is to buy an American business, or become a "treaty investor." Unfortunately, this requires a significant $$$ of investment...

But, strangely, Irish citizens can enter the lottery and they are certainly not under-represented. I'm with the "lottery is fixed" group.

I was British when I got offered a job in the US a few years ago and it is a major problem as ChristieP so rightly points out.

The H1-B quota is already used up for the next year or two so a company is not going to keep its job offer open. Another problem is that the H1-B is linked to the job and therefore if you lose your job then your out of the country, unless you can find another employer who will then need to get another H1-B visa which will take another ....& so on.

Some companies get around the problem by saying the person is coming over to learn new things at the company, this might work for a year or so, but any longer and the explanations start to wear thin.

As pointed out there is a category for people with Phd's etc but the majority of people don't have these.

The easiest way I can see is by investing, this can be less than you think, if you have any kind of business background or a good business plan that will employ US citizens, this will improve things. (You can buy an existing business)

I would recommend looking at www.workpermit.com and www.britishexpats.com for advice.

For me, its now a lot easier as I'm also an Australian citizen and last year the US-Australian govts. signed an agreement to allocate 10,000 H1-B style visas per year to Australians,(incidently only about 900 visas were used up in the first year)

Barbara, regarding the fixing of the lottery, I read an interview with a govt official where they were asked, if a married couple applied and one person was from France and the other from Japan would it be better to apply as separate countries or together as one country as is allowed if you're married. The official said it was better to apply as both from France as the percentage winning is greater from Europe than Asia, he also said that people from Africa had a higher chance as well.

Geordie

The one thing is, if you have a PhD and from England, it's apparently easier to fast track getting a green card (if you are already in the country working). I've seen this with almost every Englishman I know and already working here (even without PhD's but engineering or something like that). I've always wondered if it's because of the relationship between England and the US. Is that true? BEcause if it is, it may prove to be a useful factor if dnlmahon does apply....just exploring the possibilities.