There are several ways to become a lawful U.S. resident via employment. The process is centrally a matter of obtaining the proper advice before you jump into a formal processing of your application. As you’ve probably heard, the most common way to obtain your residency is to marry a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, but this marriage must of course be bona fide. If this is your case, lucky you! However, there are visas that can give you a real possibility of permanent residency without having to pretend you’re in love. You might be wondering: what are these visas that can help me to obtain my residency? Let’s look at the options:
The U.S. Government over time and according to the labor needs of the country, has developed different work visas that can give you an option for U.S. residency over time (residency means obtaining your “green card”). Two such examples include the “L” visa for intra company transferees, and the “H-1B” visa for professional workers.
The L visa is available for individuals who work for a company in their home county and one or more of the following elements are present:
- You work in an executive or managerial capacity;
- You are opening a new office in the United States;
- The companies are doing regular systematic business in the U.S. and abroad.
The H-1B is available for those who have one or more of the following elements:
- A bachelor’s degree or higher;
- The degree is a requirement of the position you are going to work at;
- The employer normally requires a degree for this job;
- You have specialized experience required to do the job.
As with every formal immigration process every applicant must meet certain criteria in order to apply for this visa. You may even be eligible to obtain a work visa in cases where you have a negative immigration record, such as a prior deportation or arrest, with an immigration waiver.
If you enter the United States with one of these two visas mentioned above, subsequently have good behavior and activities commensurate with your visa while residing in the United States, together with the sponsorship of your employer, you very likely will be on your way to obtaining your lawful permanent residency in the U.S.