The USA is like a giant magnet that attracts capital and investors from all over the world, all seeking a piece of the American dream.
Although illegal immigration frequently tops the news and the attention, the USA has venues to access visas and processes of legalization through jobs and investments.
You must have heard of the alphabet soup of visas such as H, L, TN, F, etc. which may be confusing
Below is a short overview of different options individuals have to come as a professional or an entrepreneur and make their American Dream a reality.
This is not legal advice, it is for general information purposes. Contact me if you have any questions. I’m not only an attorney, but a past recipient of an H-1B visa.
H visas. H1 and H2 are visas for specialized temporary workers. H-1B visas are popular with tech companies such as Microsoft, Tata, Infosys, Intel and more. Many high-tech workers get hired after graduating from an American university (where they may have attended under an F visa for foreign students) while some are recruited in their country of origin. H-1B is intended for highly skilled employees, such as doctors, scientists, engineers, etc. H2 is for less skilled workers, such as farm hands, hotel receptionists, cleaning crews and similar.
As a personal note, I was an H-1B visa recipient back in the days so I understand, first hand, the processes, and challenges of highly qualified immigrants in the USA.
L visa. This visa is also called Intracompany Transferee Executive or Manager. A typical use for this visa is for transferring employees from one foreign company to the subsidiary in the USA. The key to apply for this visa is that there needs to be common ownership or control between the entities in the two countries.
TN or Free Trade. It is used to bring workers from Canada or Mexico to the USA as part of the trade agreements between the 3 countries. It is for highly skilled professionals.
Trader E-1 visa. This visa is intended for individuals residing in countries that have a trade treaties with the United States. This allows the business person to come in and engage in business that furthers the commerce between the two countries.
Investor EB-5 visa. This is the infamous visa that can be perceived as “buying a green card”. For an amount of money that varies from $500,000 to $1,000,000, depending on the region you want to invest the money, you can be given a temporary green card IF the investment produces a minimum number of direct of jobs.
All these visas have requirements, durations and benefit limitations for the recipient AND close family members.
It is important to note that many of these processes have encounter roadblocks during the Trump administration.
There is so much more regarding professional and investment visas, especially in this ever-changing legal environment. Please call me for a consultation at (480) 324-6378 or text at (602) 317-0035 to find out if you can benefit from these opportunities that will allow you to build your American dream.