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United States Of America - Employment / Investment Based Immigration

The United States does not currently have a points-based system of immigration for skilled people. If you have skills you believe are in demand in the United States, and you would like to become a permanent American resident, you will need employer sponsorship. Permanent employment in the USA can lead to permanent residence.

To pursue this route, American employers will complete an ETA 750 (labor certification request) for you and submit it to the Employment and Training Administration at the Department of Labor. (Physicians who wish to practice medicine in any area of the United States where there is an official shortage of physicians do not need to meet this requirement.)

An American employer seeking to hire an immigrant also needs to file an I-140 an Immigrant Visa Petition or an Alien Worker. If the application is approved, The State Department will then issue an immigrant visa number to the would-be migrant. If the applicant is already in the United States then they need to apply to change their status to permanent resident after a visa number is issued.

Visas For Employment Based Immigration

You can choose from five categories that can lead to permanent residence:

1. EB-1 Extraordinary Ability
To qualify for an EB-1, you must be one of "that small percentage who have risen to the very top of their field of endeavor".

• Foreign nationals of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics
• Foreign nationals who are outstanding professors or researchers
• Foreign nationals who are managers and executives subject to international transfer to the United States

2. EB-2 Professionals With Advanced Degrees or Persons with Exceptional Ability

• Foreign nationals of exceptional ability in the sciences, arts or business
• Foreign nationals who are advanced degree professionals
• Qualified alien physicians who will practice medicine in an area of the U.S. that is currently under-served.

3. EB-3 Skilled or Professional Workers

• People with at least two years of experience as skilled workers
• Professionals with a baccalaureate degree
• Other workers 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. (A long backlog exists for visas in the "other workers" category.)

4. EB-4 Religious Workers
You must have been, for at least two years, a member of a religious denomination that has a non-profit religious organization in the United States. You must be entering the United States to work:

• As a minister or priest of the religious denomination:
• in a professional capacity in a religious vocation or occupation for the religious organization (a professional capacity means that a U.S. baccalaureate degree or foreign equivalent is required to do this job), OR
• in a religious vocation or occupation for the religious organization or its nonprofit affiliate. (A religious vocation means a calling or devotion to religious life. Taking vows can prove that you have a calling to religious life. A religious occupation is an activity devoted to traditional religious functions. Examples of religious occupations include (but are not limited to) cantors, missionaries, and religious instructors.)

5. EB-5 Investment Based Immigration

10,000 EB-5 visas per year are available.

Eligible individuals 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.

In general, "eligible individuals" include those:

1. Who establish a new commercial enterprise by:
   • creating an original business;
   • purchasing an existing business and simultaneously or subsequently restructuring or reorganizing the business such that a new commercial enterprise results; or
   • expanding an existing business by 140 percent of the pre-investment number of jobs or net worth, or retaining all existing jobs in a troubled business that has lost 20 percent of its net worth over the past 12 to 24 months; and
2. Who have invested -- or who are actively in the process of investing -- in a new commercial enterprise:
   • at least $1,000,000, or
   • at least $500,000 where the investment is being made in a "targeted employment area," which is an area that has experienced unemployment of at least 150 per cent of the national average rate or a rural area as designated by OMB; and
3. Whose engagement in a new commercial enterprise will benefit the United States economy and:
   • create full-time employment for not fewer than 10 qualified individuals; or
   • maintain the number of existing employees at no less than the pre-investment level for a period of at least two years, where the capital investment is being made in a "troubled business," which is a business that has been in existence for at least two years and that has lost 20 percent of its net worth over the past 12 to 24 months.

Further Reading

You can learn more about permanent residence based on employment from the United States Government's Immigration Services.