In VB .NET, to be able to declare a global variable for an entire project, you first have to create a module where you can put said variables.
You create that module from the project menu, add a module.
Once created you just have to declare your variable. An example would be:
Module Module1
Public variable_name As Integer
End Module
In this way the variable will be seen by all the forms and you will be able to operate with it in any form.