Employment Based Immigration
Houston Employment Immigration Attorney Gasana
For many, immigration to the United States becomes the goal of a lifetime. But what if you have no American relatives and a million dollars to invest in the American economy? It’s possible to invest your time and effort into educational and professional pursuits. One of the ways to immigrate to the United States can be receiving a job with an American employer.
What are the advantages of immigration to the US through employment?
This path can be long and difficult. It can require considerable effort, cost, and many bureaucratic procedures, but, this employment based immigration will work for you in the following cases:
- If other methods are not available, then this may be the only legal way of resettlement in the United States.
- There are options for indirect visa through employment with very short periods of transition to resident status.
- If you don’t have big savings, a work visa is an excellent option. Given its target status, you can immediately work and earn an income sufficient to live and cover the costs of all associated bureaucratic procedures.
- The authorities are quite loyal to those who enter the country with a working purpose. Getting a visa is quite realistic, justifying its value as an employee for an American company.
- It is possible for the employee to bring his/her family members.
Gasana is one of the best employment based immigration lawyers
What visas make it possible to work in the United States?
Visas are divided into immigrant and non-immigrant visas. Immigrant visas are given the right to receive permanent resident status immediately after entering United States, while non-immigrant visas do not give this right. An immigrant visa is associated with a long waiting period. It is often much faster to request a regular visa. These visas are also divided into long-term and short-term. It is not easy to get a long-term visa: you need to go through a number of bureaucratic procedures, the main one being to file your employer’s application to the USCIS and coordinate with the Department of Labor to have a vacancy with staff requirements that are in short supply in the US labor market. To find such an employer can be difficult as well. It is much easier to find an employer who is ready to invite you for a short-term contract and get the temporary visa.
Entry into the United States for business purposes includes a range of cases and corresponding visas. The authorities carefully monitor not only the compliance with the terms to stay in the country, determined by the conditions of the visa, but also the compliance of the purpose and nature of the job with the selected visa. If you decide to go this route, you need to figure out which of the visas is right for you and what you can expect when you receive such a visa.
Houston Employment Based Immigration Lawyer Gasana will help you with the legal process
1) First Preference:
- Persons with extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics. Applicants in this category must have extensive documentation showing sustained national or international acclaim and recognition in their fields of expertise. Such applicants do not have to have specific job offers, so long as they are entering the U.S. to continue work in the fields in which they have extraordinary ability. Such applicants can file their own Immigrant Petitions for Alien Worker, Form I-140, with the USCIS.
- Outstanding professors and researchers with at least three years experience in teaching or research, who are recognized internationally. Applicants in this category must be coming to the U.S. to pursue tenure, tenure track teaching, or a comparable research position at a university or other institution of higher education. The prospective employer must provide a job offer and file an Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, Form I-140, with the USCIS.
- Multinational managers or executives who have been employed for at least one of the three preceding years by the overseas affiliate, parent, subsidiary, or branch of the U.S. employer. The applicant’s employment outside of the U.S. must have been in a managerial or executive capacity, and the applicant must be coming to have a job as a manager or an executive. The prospective employer must provide a job offer and file an Immigrant Petition for foreign nationals, Form I-140, with the USCIS.
2) Second Preference :
- PERM Labor Certification: A Second Preference applicant must generally have a labor certification approved by the Department of Labor. A job offer is required and the U.S. employer must file an Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, Form I-140, on behalf of the applicant.
- National Interest Waiver General: Applicants may apply for an exemption, known as a National Interest Waiver, from the job offer and labor certification if the exemption would be in the national interest. In this case, the applicant may self-petition by filing the Immigrant Petition for foreign professional, Form I-140, along with evidence of the national interest.
- National Interest Waiver for Physicians: the national interest waiver exemption may also be granted to a foreign national physician who agrees to have a job for a period of time in a designated underserved area.
Employment Visas Eligibility Criteria
- You must agree to have a job full-time in a clinical practice. For most physician NIW cases, the required period of service is 5 years
- You must work in a primary care (such as a general practitioner, family practice petitioner, general internist, pediatrician, obstetrician/gynecologist, or psychiatrist) or be a specialty physician
- You must serve either in a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA), Mental Health Professional Area (MHPSA – for psychiatrists only), a Medically Underserved Area (MUA), or a Veterans Affairs facility, or for specialists in a Physician Scarcity Area (PSA)
- You must obtain a statement from a federal agency or a state department of health that has knowledge of your qualifications as a physician and that states your job is in the public interest (This statement is known as an attestation)
3) Third Preference (E3): Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Unskilled Workers (Other Workers)
A Third Preference applicant must have an approved Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, Form I-140, filed by the prospective employer. All such workers generally require labor certification approved by the Department of Labor. E3 visa workers receive 28.6 percent of the yearly worldwide limit of employment-based visas, plus any unused visas from the First Preference and Second Preference categories.
There are three subgroups within this category:
- Skilled workers are persons whose jobs require a minimum of 2 years training or job experience that are not temporary or seasonal.
- Professionals are members of the professions whose jobs require at least a baccalaureate degree from a U.S. university or college or its foreign equivalent degree.
- Unskilled workers are persons capable of filling positions that require less than two years training or experience that are not temporary or seasonal.
4)Fourth Preference (E4): Certain Special Immigrants
A Fourth Preference applicant must be the beneficiary of an approved Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant, Form I-360, with the exception of Certain Employees or Former Employees of the U.S. Government Abroad (see number 3 below). Labor certification is not required for any of the Certain Special Immigrants subgroups. Special Immigrants receive 7.1 percent of the yearly worldwide limit of employment visas.
There are many subgroups within this category:
- Broadcasters in the U.S. employed by the International Broadcasting Bureau of the Broadcasting Board of Governors or a grantee of such organization
- Ministers of Religion
- Certain Employees or Former Employees of the U.S. Government Abroad – Must use Form DS-1884, Petition To Classify Special Immigrant Under INA 203(b)(4) As An Employee Or Former Employee of the U.S. Government Abroad
- Certain Former Employees of the Panama Canal Company or Canal Zone Government
- Certain Former Employees of the U.S. Government in the Panama Canal Zone
- Certain Former Employees of the Panama Canal Company or Canal Zone Government on April 1st, 1979
- Iraqi and Afghan interpreters/translators who have worked directly with the United States armed forces or under Chief of Mission authority as a translator/interpreter for a period of at least 12 months and meet requirements. This classification has an annual numeric limitation of 50 visas. See Special Visas for Iraqi and – Afghan Translators/Interpreters for more information.
- Iraqi and Afghan nationals who have provided faithful and valuable service while employed by or on behalf of the U.S. government in Iraq for not less than one year on or after March 20th, 2003 and prior to September 30, 2013, or in Afghanistan for not less than one year after October 7th, 2001, and have experienced an ongoing serious threat as a consequence of that employment. See Special Visas for Iraqis – Worked for/on behalf of the U.S. Government and Afghans – Worked for/on behalf of the U.S. Government for more information.
- Certain Foreign Medical Graduates (Adjustments Only)
- Certain Retired International Organization Employees
- Certain Unmarried Sons and Daughters of International Organization Employees
- Certain Surviving Spouses of deceased International Organization Employees
- Special Immigrant Juveniles (no family member derivatives; Adjustments Only)
- Persons Recruited Outside of the United States Who Have Served or are Enlisted to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces
- Certain retired NATO-6 civilians
- Certain Unmarried Sons and Daughters of NATO-6 civilians
- Certain Surviving Spouses of deceased NATO-6 civilian employees
- Persons who are beneficiaries of petitions or labor certification applications filed prior to September 11th, 2001, if the petition or application was rendered void due to a terrorist act on September 11th, 2001
- Certain Religious Workers
5) Fifth Preference (E5): Immigrant Investors
Immigrant Investor visa categories are for capital investment by foreign investors in new commercial enterprises in the United States which provide job creation. Select Immigrant Investor Visas to learn more about this employment-based category.