Tue Nov 18, 2008 11:26 am
Not really, you've listed the main methods there. You have to have LPR status to be able to join the Marines, so assuming you have no relative who can sponsor you (which takes an age anyway), no-one to marry and no employer sponsoring you (which also takes years in most cases) the only one you haven't listed there that gives you LPR status right off the bat is to go in as an immigrant investor.
Obviously not practical if you use the regular EB-5 classification as you have to be running a business to get it, but you could go for the immigrant investor centre programme, which in a nutshell requires you to lend $500,000 to a local govt. sponsored project (usually, or some sort of project) for six years and then you get it back with minimal interest.
There are 3,000 visas a year for this programme. Ordinarily I suspect they would go quite quickly but not at the moment.
But of course you need US$500,000 for six years, which will be hard to pull off with the credit crunch unless your parents happen to be very wealthy!
Steve.