Hi Sowji, my better half was recently accepted for a PhD in the USA with a full scholarship. You definitely need to pass a GRE or TOEFL English proficiency exam with a good score (see specific university websites for their exact requirements). The basic process she went through was (1) identify uni's with academics who have similar research interests, contact them and ask if they or their department can fund a PhD (2) if the supervisor says they have funding, or may have funding later, they'll recommend you to apply to the university and pay the fee (approximately ~$100 per uni) -- you won't be accepted without GRE/TOEFL, (3) e-mail the supervisor and let him/her know that you've been admitted, (4) wait until the supervisor confirms if s/he can make you a funding offer.