This week we continue our series on getting a permanent residency or green card in Trump’s America with Option 2: Green card through employment.
The areas of qualification in this category, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, are as follows:
EB-1 is for “priority workers” or foreign nationals with extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics; outstanding professors and researchers; or certain multinational managers and executives.
EB-2 applies to foreign nationals who are members of the professions holding advanced degrees or who have exceptional ability.
EB-3 is for other immigrant workers, meaning your job requires a minimum of two years training or work experience; your job requires at least a U.S. bachelor’s degree or a foreign equivalent and you are a member of the profession; or you will perform unskilled labor requiring less than two years training or experience.
EB-4 refers to special immigrants, such as religious ministers, broadcasters, G-4 International Organization or NATO-6 employees and their family members, Afghan and Iraqi translators and special immigrant juveniles.
EB-5 is for immigrant investors who have invested or are actively in the process of investing at least $1 million (or $500,000 in a targeted employment area) in a new commercial enterprise in the U.S. that will create full-time positions for at least 10 qualifying employees.
There is also a special qualification for physicians who agree to work full time in clinical practice in a designated underserved area for a set period of time and also meet other eligibility requirements.
To qualify as a person with “extraordinary abilities” you must be able to demonstrate extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics through sustained national or international acclaim, and your achievements must be recognized in your field through extensive documentation. No offer of employment is required and you can self-sponsor.
However, if you want to be eligible for a green card as an outstanding professor or researcher or a multinational manager or executive, a potential employer must file the I-140 Form, or Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, on your behalf with the USCIS.
Outstanding professors must demonstrate international recognition for your outstanding achievements in a particular academic field, have at least three years’ experience in teaching or research in that academic area and be entering the United States to pursue tenure or tenure track teaching or comparable research position at a university or other institution of higher education.
Multinational managers or executives must have been employed outside the United States in the three years preceding the petition for at least one year by a U.S. firm or corporation, and you must be seeking to enter the United States to continue service with that firm or organization. Your employment must have been outside the United States in a managerial or executive capacity and with the same employer, an affiliate or a subsidiary of the employer.
E-B2 and E-B3 are much tougher because you must first receive a Department of Labor Foreign Labor Certification approval before an employer can file the I-140.
Under E-B2, applying for a job requiring an advanced degree, you must possess such a degree or its equivalent (a baccalaureate degree plus five years’ progressive work experience in the field). To qualify under “exceptional ability,” you must be able to show exceptional ability in the sciences, arts or business or a degree of expertise significantly above that ordinarily encountered in the sciences, arts or business.
Under E-B3, skilled workers must demonstrate at least two years of job experience or training, and professionals must possess a U.S. baccalaureate degree or foreign degree equivalent. In both instances, you must prove to the Department of Labor that you will be performing a job for which qualified workers are not available in the United States, meaning you are not taking a job from an American.
An unskilled labor petition requires less than two years training or experience, is not temporary or seasonal and must be for a job for which qualified workers are not available in the United States.
Under the E-B4 petitions, an employer must file a Form I-360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er) or Special Immigrant. Note, however, that there are also visa limits under this category.
E-B5 applicants must show evidence that they have invested or are actively in the process of investing in a “for profit” new commercial enterprise and are investing at least between $500,000 and $1 million, as well as prove you will be running the company and that the number of existing employees is being or will be maintained for a period of at least two years. Applicants’ attorneys must file Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur.
If you are in the U.S. and have received an approved Form I-140 application and now want to adjust your status here, you or your attorney must properly file Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status; show proof that you were inspected and admitted or inspected and paroled into the United States; and prove that you are physically present in the United States at the time you file your Form I-485. A filing fee of $1,140 is required along with a biometric services fee of $85.
Look for Option 3 next week in the Eight Ways to Get a Green Card in Trump’s America series!
The writer is CMO at Hard Beat Communications, Inc. which owns the brands NewsAmericasNow, CaribPRWire and InvestCaribbeanNow.