Immigration Through Employment

Do you want to know how you can get a U.S. green card based on your employment skills? Foreign workers can obtain a green card through employment allowing them to live permanently in the U.S. All it takes is a permanent job offer from a U.S. employer who is willing to sponsor you foreigner for residency.

These employer-sponsored visas or "EB-visas" consist of five categories of workers (and their spouses and children): priority workers; professionals with advanced degrees or aliens of exceptional ability; skilled workers, professionals (without advanced degrees), and needed unskilled workers; special immigrants (e.g., ministers, religious workers, and employees of the U.S. government abroad); and employment creation immigrants or “investors.”

The number of employment visas available is limited to 140,000 each year, although more visas can be made available if any unused numbers remain from the family preference category from the previous year. You can see this in the latest statistics from the Department of Homeland Security: In 2007, 162,176 people became legal permanent residents through employment-based immigration. That's 15.4% of the total number of new permanent residents last year.

Be warned: this isn't a quick way to get a green card. Labor certifications can take anywhere from 6 months to 3 years; current processing times for the Alien Worker petition are between 12 and 24 months; immigrant visa numbers are currently available for most employment preference categories, but this could change at any time; and the adjustment of status is currently taking 1 to 2 years. However, if you're already in the U.S. on a temporary worker visa and you'd like to stay permanently, or if you're outside the U.S. and willing to be patient, then an employment-based visa might be right for you.