Immigrant

Visa Lottery(Green Card Visa)

A Visa lottery, also known as the Diversity Immigrant Lottery Visa, is responsible for granting permanent residence to applicants through a random computer generated lottery drawing. To qualify for the lottery program an applicant must meet two requirements

Applicant must be able to claim nativity in an eligible country (through marriage or parents)
Applicant must meet education or training requirement

In order to be entered into the lottery program, a Visa Lottery application must be completed in the right format and cannot have content errors.

EB-1 Extraordinary Ability

General Information:
Aliens of "extraordinary ability" are aliens who have received major international awards. In this category, receipt of an award such as a Nobel Prize or Academy Award suffice as evidence of "extraordinary ability." Absent such a specific award, the alien must provide at least three types of evidence. The evidence may be the same as that enumerated for professors and researchers, or in the case of non-scientific or education "extraordinary ability:" evidence that his or her work has been displayed in more than one country; evidence that he or she has had a lead or critical role through an establishment with a strong reputation.

Eligibility Requirements:
The individual must possess skills that are extraordinary within the field of sciences, arts, education, business, athletics, or within the field of motion picture or television industry. Examples of proof of extraordinary ability can be contracts, awards, nominations, prices, published material or similar documentation reflecting the nature of the individual’s achievement The general requirement is that the individual should have risen to the "top of her/his field of endeavor." as demonstrated by national or international acclaim which should be recognized through extensive documentation and the alien should continue the work in the same field and would substantially benefit the U.S. prospectively

Eb-2 Employment Second Preference

Applications must have a labor certification approved by the Department of Labor, or Schedule A designation. Otherwise they must establish eligibility for one of the shortage occupations in the Labor Market Information Pilot Program. A job offer is required under as a second preference and the U.S. employer must file a petition on behalf of the applicant.

EB-5 Investor Visa Program

General Information:
Green Cards through Investment (also called the Fifth Preference Green Card or EB-5) are available to anyone who invests a certain amount of money United States by creating a business or expanding one that already exists.

Eligibility Requirements:
The investor must demonstrate that his assets were gained in a lawful manner. This requires the investor to prove his investment funds were obtained through lawful business, salary, investments, property sales, inheritance, gift, loan, or other lawful means.

Family and Marriage Based Residency Petitions

General Information:
This is the process by which U.S. citizens and permanent residents can request that permanent residency be granted for their immediate family members (parents, children, brothers and sisters), given that they can demonstrate that they can financially support them in the U.S.

Eligibility Requirements:
There are two categories of petitions: relatives of U.S. citizens and relatives of legal permanent residents.

Relatives of U.S. Citizens:

US citizens may file petitions on behalf of the following family members:

• Spouse;
• Parents (if citizen is at least 21 years of age);
• Married or unmarried children over 21 years of age and married children under 21 years of age, including stepchildren (unmarried children under 21 years of age are eligible for naturalization without having to go through the residency process); and
• Brothers and Sisters (if citizen is at least 21 years of age).
  

Relatives of Permanent Residents:

Legal permanent residents may file petitions on behalf of the following family members:

• Spouse; and
• Unmarried children (including stepchildren)
  

PERM (Alien employment certification application)

A "labor certification" is a determination by the U.S. Department of Labor that there are no available and qualified U.S. workers for the position being offered and that the employment of the foreign national will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers. The process is somewhat lengthy and the employer must conduct a supervised recruitment with a state employment service in order to test the labor market. Generally, the foreign national is in a valid nonimmigrant status during this process, unless he/she is abroad. The labor certification is a prerequisite to the Second and Third Preference employment categories, unless in the Second Preference, the work is "in the national interest."

Political Asylum

General Description:
An alien may qualify as a refugee either because he or she has suffered past persecution, or he or she has a well-founded fear of future persecution in their home country of nationality or last habitual residence on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, and that they are either unwilling or unable to return to the place that they were persecuted. The asylum status can be held indefinitely. However, the work authorization must be renewed on a yearly basis

Eligibility Requirements:
Aliens who have remained in the U.S. for less than one year and are part of an eligible Asylum class (i.e. persecuted due to political party, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation group, social group, etc). Immediate family members may be eligible for asylum status with all its benefits such as work authorization, as long as they have been named in the alien's asylum application; even if any family members are not present in the U.S. at the time the application is filed.