An employment-based visa is a visa given to immigrants who are sponsored by a company to work in the States. In other words, a business may be looking to hire employees from abroad who will become permanent workers.
The first step in this process is to sponsor an immigration visa for the worker. While there are many ways immigrants can obtain a visa, such as marrying a U.S. citizen or having family members in the U.S., a potential immigrant employee may not have that option. However, this is not a matter of major concern, because obtaining an employment-based visa is also a viable option.
Corporations should not look to hire any foreign worker. Typically, corporations search for skilled, educated, and experienced workers. But sponsoring a visa isn’t as easy as finding someone with the right skill set and filled out a job application the worker must be eligible for one of the five employment-based visas.
Here’s what you should know:
Five Kinds of Visas For Corporate Workers
After a U.S. employer obtains a labor certification, they verify that they have sufficient U.S. employees applying to their company and that foreign workers won’t adversely affect wages. Then they can sponsor a nonimmigrant looking to work on U.S. soil. However, this doesn’t apply to everyone and depends on the kind of employment-based visa offered.
The following are the five kinds of employment-based visas offered in the U.S.:
- First Preference EB-1: Reserved for people with extraordinary abilities who are regarded as a professor, researcher, executive or manager in the arts, business, sciences, education or athletics
- Second Preference EB-2: Reserved for people with exceptional abilities with an advanced degree in the arts, business or sciences
- Third Preference EB-3: Reserved for trained skilled workers
- Fourth Preference EB-4: Reserved for special immigrants
- Fifth Preference EB-5: Reserved for investors
Certain activities can prevent a foreign worker from applying for a work visa, such as drug trafficking, overstaying a previous visa, or submitting false documents. Misrepresentation of documents by the worker may bar them from applying for a visa. If you believe there was a mistake and misrepresentation in the documentation of a potential immigrant worker, then you should familiarize yourself with the relevant legal options.