Part 3: Employment Based Immigration

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Part 3: Employment Based Immigration Options

Welcome back to our US Immigration relocation series.
In order to relocate to the US there are three main streams of Immigration: –

Sponsorship by Family –
Based on immediate family members

Sponsorship by Employment –
Based on educational skill level

Self-Sponsorship –
Based on talent – gifted/nationally acclaimed,
Based on money – investment,
Based on distress – asylum / refugee

In this presentation, we’re going to review some of the employment based immigration options.
US Immigration classifies aliens looking for employment into several categories: –

EB1 Green Card:

The EB1 green card is reserved for aliens with “extraordinary” talent, tenured professors and researchers and intra-company transferees.

Each year 40,000 green cards are made available for aliens in this category.

EB2 Green Card:

The EB2 green card is reserved for aliens with PhDs and other advanced degrees, such as Master of Science, Master of Arts or Law degrees, which in the US are actually Doctorate degrees, because you cannot take a qualifying Law degree unless you already have a Bachelors degree.

Again, each year 40,000 green cards are made available for aliens in this category.

EB3 Green Card:

The EB3 green card is by far the most competitively chased green card because of the 40,000 per year limited. You can qualify for an EB3 green card if you have any qualification requiring a two-year course of study, like the Registered Nurse qualification or a Bachelors degree.

As you can imagine, far more people have a two-year Diploma or Bachelors degree than a PhD or can qualify for an EB1 green card. Thus the 40,000 cap is not only reached very quickly, but now a backlog exists where applicants could be waiting more than five years and quite honestly, no employer is going to wait five or more years for you to take up the position, unless you are already working for them under a work permit or work visa.

We’ll cover work permits and work visas in this presentation series.

In order to get a foothold in America based on employment, there’s the H-1B graduate visa.

H-1B Graduate Visa:

Each year US Immigration offers 65,000 of these visas to any US employer who would like to sponsor an alien with a Bachelors degree or equivalent. Top fashion models have also been placed in the H-1B category, but instead of the Bachelors degree requirement, they have to show strong performance in their field.

There are two main challenges with the H-1B visa. Firstly, it’s very difficult to get the attention of a potential employer unless you are physically present in the US. Secondly, the 65,000 H-1B quota is released every April 1^st and often they are all gone within weeks or months of release. Therefore, the window to actually get a H-1B is very tiny and requires a lot of planning.

Most people who are able to get onto the H-1B ladder then go on to apply for one of the EB1 thru EB3 green cards. Most people who get on the H-1B ladder first come over as F1 students.  As a student, they are able to obtain physical presence in the US and thus attend job fairs etc and get a student work permit and get temporary employment.

As you can see, if you can make it as a student for 2-4 years to top-up your educational profile, there is a path way to getting a H-1B and from the H-1B there is a pathway to getting a green card.

O1 Visa – Aliens of Extraordinary Ability:

For those people working at the very top of their profession you may be eligible for an O1 visa. We have written extensively on this visa type on our website so only the highlights are given in this presentation.

In a nutshell, if you are earning more than $150K per year in the corporate world, then it often follows that you will be able to meet two more of the remaining 6 categories. If you are working in Film, Media or Entertainment where high pay is not always the case, you may have landed some leading roles in front of the camera, or played a leading role behind the camera for the production company.

We work with a lot of fashion designers, producers, editors, photographers, as well as actors, models and musicians. The nature of their work is often temporary for specific projects. The great news about the O1 visa is that there is no numerical cap on these visas at all.

In the next presentation, we’re going to review the self-sponsorship based immigration options.

Immigration Law Offices of Chris M. Ingram

US Immigration Law Offices of Chris M. Ingram
Chris M. Ingram LL.M., ESQ – Immigration Attorney
Admitted in New York.
Practice Specializing in US Immigration Law
401 Wilshire Boulevard, 12th Floor,
Santa Monica,
California 90401
Tel: 310 496 4292

Specializing in the E2 Visa, EB1 Green Card, L-1A Visa and O1 Visa and K1 Visa Marriage-Based Immigration. Attorney Chris M. Ingram is dedicated to providing the very best in US Immigration legal representation. Enjoy our website.

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