Q: Who is Eligible for Employment Based Immigration?
There are five categories of employment based immigration:
* First Preference (EB-1 priority workers): aliens with extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and certain multinational executives and managers.
* Second Preference (EB-2 workers with advanced degrees or exceptional ability): aliens who are members of the professions holding advanced degrees or their equivalent and aliens who because of their exceptional ability in the sciences, arts, or business will substantially benefit the national economy, cultural, or educational interests or welfare of the United States.
* Third Preference (EB-3 professionals, skilled workers, and other workers): aliens with at least two years of experience as skilled workers, professionals with a baccalaureate degree, and others with less than two years experience, such as an unskilled worker who can perform labor for which qualified workers are not available in the United States.
* Fourth Preference (EB-4 special workers such as those in a religious occupation or vocation): aliens who, for at least two years before applying for admission to the United States, have been a member of a religious denomination that has a non-profit religious organization in the United States, and who will be working in a religious vocation or occupation at the request of the religious organization.
* Fifth Preference (EB-5 Employment Creation): aliens are granted immigrant status in the United States for the purpose of engaging in a new commercial enterprise.
Q: How do I apply for Employment Based Immigration to the U.S.?
A U.S. company or employer must first agree to hire you and sponsor your immigration. Once a company/employer agrees to hire you, then that company needs to petition the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). Once that petition is approved by the USCIS only then would you be eligible to apply for a visa to permit entry into the United States. The procedure typically follows the course outlined below:
1. The USCIS must approve an immigrant petition (application) that was filed for you, usually by an employer.
2. In most employment categories (see below), a U.S. employer must complete a labor certification request for you from the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration.
3. The State Department must give you an immigrant visa number,
4. If you are outside the United States when an immigrant visa number becomes available, you will be notified to go to the U.S. Embassy to be interviewed. It should be noted that the approval of a petition does not guarantee visa issuance to an applicant. As part of the visa application process, an interview at the U.S. Embassy consular section is required for visa applicants and certain documentation must be submitted at the time of interview. Visit the Department of State website for more information on additional requirements: http://travel.state.gov/ visa/ immigrants/types/types_1323.html.
“Ask the Consul” is a weekly column from the U.S. Embassy answering questions about U.S. immigration law and visa issues. If you have a general question about visa policy please email it to us at AskGeorge@state.gov. We select questions each week and publish the answers in Stabroek News and on our website at http://georgetown.usembassy.gov/guyana/ask_con.html. For more information about visas please see http://www.unitedstatesvisas.gov or http://georgetown.usembassy.gov/.
Other than the questions we select, we DO NOT respond to questions sent to Ask the Consul. Please contact the visa inquiries unit (email visageorge@state.gov or call 225-7965 between 8 am- 4 pm Monday through Friday) if you have questions about a specific case.