Employment EB2, eb3, EB4, & EB5 Immigrant Categories

A post-baccalaureate degree, or a baccalaureate degree with at least five years progressive experience in the profession.  The statute requires the alien be a member of the profession and hold an advanced degree but does not state that the position must require the advanced degree.

Exceptional Ability means having a degree of expertise significantly above that ordinarily encountered within the field. 

—   Labor Certification Not Required    

—   Self-Petitioning Allowed / Job Offer Not Required

Advanced-degree professionals and aliens with exceptional ability may avoid labor certification and job offer requirement if the exemption would be in the national interest.  In such cases, the alien may self file the petition with evidence of the national interest.

1.  Skilled Workers capable of performing a job requiring at least two years training or experience. 
2. Professionals with a BA Degree 
3. Other Workers capable of filling positions requiring less than two years training or experience ("capable ... of performing unskilled labor, not of a temporary or seasonal nature ...")

Religious workers coming to carry on the vocation of a minister of religion, or to work in a professional capacity in a religious vocation, or to work for a tax-exempt organization affiliated with a religious denomination.

• Certain overseas employees of the U.S. government
• Certain dependents of international organization employees
• Retired employees of international organizations
• Certain members of the U.S. Armed Forces

—  Labor Certification Not Required    

—   Permanent Job Offer Is Required 

• Certain  Overseas U.S. Government Employees
• Citizens of Iraq & Afghanistan who have served the U.S. Armed Forces for at least 1 year
• Certain Physicians with Residence in the U.S.
• Certain Juvenile Dependents in U.S. Foster Care
• Certain Dependents of Diplomats
• Certain employees of the American Taiwan Institute for at least 15 years
• Persons who have actively served in the U.S. Armed Forces for 12 years (or 6 if they reenlisted for another 6)

—   Labor Certification Not Required

—   Self-Petitioning Allowed / Job Offer Not Required

—   Does not require you to maintain your existing home-country business

—   Does not require extraordinary ability or exceptional ability

—   Applicant must invest between $500,000 and $1,000,000 into job creating enterprise (see below)

Engagement in a commercial enterprise serves as a basis for issuance of 10,000 EB-5 visas yearly.  Permanent resident status based on EB-5 eligibility is available to investors, either alone or coming with their spouse and unmarried children. 

Eligible aliens are those who have invested -- or are actively in the process of investing -- the required amount of capital into a new commercial enterprise that they have established. They must further demonstrate that this investment will benefit the United States economy and create the requisite number of full-time jobs for qualified persons within the United States. 

Specifically, to qualify, the applicant must invest between U.S. $500,000 and $1,000,000, depending on the employment rate in the geographical area, in a commercial enterprise in the United States which creates at least 10 new full-time jobs for U.S. citizens, permanent resident aliens, or other lawful immigrants, not including the investor and his or her family.   

Attention to EB5 drawback: If you plan to go down this EB-5 path to your green card, it is critical that your case is ultimately successful.  Unlike most other green card paths, the EB-5 category gives you "conditional" permanent resident status (i.e., a temporary green card) up front.   This "conditional resident" mechanism means that after you receive your conditional green card, you will lose any previous nonimmigrant status (e.g., H-1, L-1, E-2, etc.) you may have had.   Effectively, this particular green card mechanism pulls your nonimmigrant "safety net" out from under your green card effort. Therefore, a critical pre-screening of your investment and case is imperative to increase your chance of final approval.