I am a poker player in the UK. I have been a winning player 7 years in a row. I have documented records of live winnings for the past 3 1/2 years. Is it possible to apply for a green card to be a professional poker player in the usa ?

doubtful. i'd suggest you scrape together as much cash as you can into a bank account and try to show that off saying you want to start a small business or something.

Is poker a recognised profession in the usa that you can declare on a tax return at the end of the financial year ?

You can file a self-employed business as a professional gambling on a U.S. income tax return. However, being successfully self-employed, whether as a professional gambler or otherwise, does not qualify you for a green card:

http://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-through-job

By the way, why you would want to pay US income tax on your poker winnings?

No chance they let you in, poker is not a very respected profession, even if it was, it would be tough for you to get in.

Just tell them you are fleeing persecution by the Church of England.

The reason is where I have to play in England the stakes/levels are too small. Living in the usa I could play 5 times higher level , so even paying tax I would be far better off..

Why not move to Canada as they got their independence from England later than we did and so it might be easier to get some kind of permanent status there?

You want to leave the "civilized" world after we threw your tea in the harbour.

Why not just move somewhere else in England?

what is Dneg's immigration status? does he have a green card?

According to Wikipedia, he does.

He has a green card:
http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-blog...y-amazing-race

But that is likely based on his business ventures rather than his poker play.

not enough money in London for this guy

no money in london, everyone's solid

Why don't u buy a vacation home in Vegas and come and go every few months? It should be fairly simple, you can stay 3 month at a time.

I've also spoken with a German poker pro who said it was easy for a poker player to get a green card, which I could not believe.

However if you come to us for trips, you can play full time and not pay taxes. As poker player I would try to avoid getting a green card for tax reasons.

You can barely find a 2/5 game in London.

Don't know why you wanna come here?most poker players are leaving here cause they can't play online. I fink your doing it backwards mate

usually the highest game you can find in London is a 2/5 game :-)

Why don't you just come to the us for 3 months at a time? That way you can play in the us without paying taxes.

You can very easily rent a place in Vegas, LA, Miami or Atlantic City for a few months or buy. Some casinos might even get you free rooms after you establish some history (i.e. Borgata in AC does that).

Agreed

Stay in a free country like the UK, grind on Stars and live happily ever after...

It's pretty obvious why the OP is trying to leave England and it has nothing to do with the card games he plays in. Who wants to live in a place where its cold and rainy 360 days a year?

Everybody in Seattle

Seattle isn't even Top10 of rainiest cities in the US. Having lived in both places, London and Seattle, I'd snap-take Seattle over London any day. You can go weeks without seeing the sky in the winter, in Seattle you get sunny days mixed in every few days and last summer was just the best I've ever seen anywhere.

But, to stay on-topic: OP, the advice given to just get here on ESTA for 3 months and grind while renting/sharing is solid. Getting a green card is quite complicated (unless you hire a lawyer and have a reason, playing poker is not one of them). And if you get a green card for some reason and want to move outside the US later, you still have to pay US taxes as you are considered a lawful permanent resident, no matter where you actually live and you have to file a US tax return annually or forfeit the green card (which in turn will make it very hard when you want to get back in, even on a visa waive program)

Which is the reason many US citizens living abroad give up their passport, which prompted the government to raise the fees to make it more difficult for them to give up their passport...

You can also go to the U.S. FOR 3 months followed by a CA trip, where u can play live poker as well and return to the US yet again.