Today, after 12 years studying (5) and working (7) in the United States, I became a US permanent resident!

Thank you to *every* single person who contributed to making this possible. I will never forget. I promise from the bottom of my heart that I will pay it forward.

By the way, If you are an international student moving to a permanent (e.g. tenure-track) job in academia: Make sure you *immediately* start the process of you Green Card application. There are exploding deadlines for certain GC categories.

In my case the GC took so long because I missed the window to apply as a fresh PhD (EB-2), so I had to wait several years to accumulate enough pubs, awards, and get strong support letters from senior colleagues to apply through the EB-1 category. Save yourself the trouble.

Some details about the journey for international students reading this:

I had an F1 visa and started working at @rff with my OPT. I stayed a year before moving to Cornell. As I was changing jobs I requested an OPT extension thanks to the STEM designation.

Once settled in tenure track job Cornell sponsored me for an H1B. Valid for 3y. I should have started the GC process right away, but was tired from changing jobs, cities + paperwork. Wanted to get research done, but that made me miss the EB-2 GC window. Make sure u r informed!

I got the H1B renewal for 3 more years. It’s in this period I think I missed the EB2 window. The Cornell International office has a good sense (from experience) of which cases pass the EB1 GC threshold. I was told I was not there yet. That was *extremely* stressful for me.

Cause now I felt it was about passing bars for both Tenure and GC! Cornell submitted my EB1 application (I-140) close to 1 year before the expiry of my H1B (5th year) just as I was going up for tenure. The GC application looks like a phone book!

Btw, if you go the EB1 route make SURE you keep EVERY invitation to review papers, participate in invite-only workshops, participate in an evaluation panel, etc. you will need this. Do not lose those emails!! This is super tedious to put together otherwise.

Note that I also had issues with the GC application submission cause I applied too late, so I had to “recover” time spent outside of the US under H1B status (I recovered ~70 days) so that I would technically be applying by the end of my 5th year of H1B, a requirement.

The hardest part was meeting this EB1 threshold in the I-140. Once I got that approval (yey) I had to do a lot of the other paperwork (I-485) on my own. This is the actual GC application. This can be complex depending of your situation, and employer involvement varies a lot.

If you have the money or your employer helps you pay for a lawyer, do that I say. If you do it on your own (like i did) get ready for spending many many hours reading the fine print in government forms. But note that you will ALWAYS make a mistake somewhere in the application.

So I hired a lawyer by the hour to ask questions about how to put the I-485 (and other forms) together. I think I used 2/3 hours total over time when in doubt. Price was $200 here in Ithaca. Interviews were by phone, so don’t feel you have to use a local firm if it is pricey.

Once you submit the I-485 with associated forms (I-131, I-765 which allow you to work and travel while you wait for the GC) you are able to stay in the US until you get an answer. But you can only work if your H1B has not expired or you have received the temporary GC work permit.

Due to covid this was a mess this year, and I did not received my temporary work permit before the normal expiration date of my H1B. So Cornell had to request a 1yr extension of my H1B. It arrived TWO days before the end of my H1B status. So I could continue working and be paid..

While you are waiting, you sometimes get request for additional info, like your vaccination record. I didn’t have one (growing up in a dev country) so had to get a bunch of vaccines all at once (had to pay for this).

You also get an appointment to provide your biometrics (photo and fingerprints of all fingers). They need this to run background checks by the FBI. Very fun. You don’t hear anything related to this later if you are not a criminal I guess!

You eventually get a interview date. Our interview was in Syracuse, so ~1 hour away. Took like 30 minutes. Friendly guy (refreshing!) went over the forms and confirmed the info in the I-485 form. Then left the meeting as a resident. GC arrives in the mail 2-3 weeks later. Fin.