Employment Visas

We provide individuals and companies legal advice concerning employment-based immigration in the United States. We combine extensive knowledge of immigration law with international business experience to offer customized legal services that serve our clients’ immigration goals.

As business and immigration lawyers we cover all areas of Immigration Law including temporary employment visas H-1B Specialty Occupations Visa, TN NAFTA Professional Visa, L-1 Intracompany Transferee Visa, O-1 Extraordinary Ability Visa, EB-1 First Preference Green Card, EB-2 Second Preference Green Card, EB-3 Third Preference Green Card and other immigration areas.

With our employment immigration practice we incorporate other aspects of law, including general corporation law, contract law, accounting, intellectual property rights, licensing, zoning laws, and other regulations relating to a specific area of business, in order to provide the best legal advice to our clients.

“We use our expertise to advise you on all aspects of business immigration, capital raising and daily business operations to business growth strategies.”

Most importantly, we help our clients with their business immigration needs in the following areas:

H-1B Specialty Occupations Visa

H-1B Visa for temporary workers allow a U.S. company to temporarily employ foreign workers on positions that require highly specialized knowledge and at least a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent. The foreign workers who can qualify for an H-1B Visa include those individuals that come to the United States to work in specialty occupations that require a bachelor’s degree or higher, individuals who engage in cooperative research and development projects administered by the U.S. Department of Defense and fashion models of distinguished merit and ability. Regarding the H-1B process, the U.S. employer or agent must file a petition on behalf of the foreign worker to qualify him or her as an H-1B temporary worker. There are 65,000 H-1B Visas available each year for foreign workers with a bachelor’s degree and 20,000 H-1B Visas for foreign workers that hold a master’s degree or higher from a U.S. university or other higher education institution. Because the number of applications highly exceeds the cap on the number of H-1B Visas issued each year, the petitions are selected via a lottery also known as a random selection process. There is no way to predict what H-1B petition is selected or when the year’s H-1B cap will be used. The H-1B Visa is granted for three (3) years and may be extended for a maximum of six (6) years.

In the case of an Investor, Business Owner or Entrepreneurs applying for an H-1B Visa, the U.S. company and the foreign worker are often the same person, but a business owner can also use an H-1B Visa to sponsor his or her employees. An H-1B Visa is more difficult as an option when the owner of the U.S. company is also the beneficiary of the H-1B petition because there are strict laws regarding whether or not a person who has an ownership interest in a company can sponsor themselves for an H-1B Visa. However, a qualified immigration specialist can help in this case.

TN NAFTA Professionals Visa

The TN NAFTA Professional Visa is a temporary nonimmigrant visa available only to Canadian and Mexican citizens that want to come to the United States to work at a professional level and bring their spouse and children. Unlike the H1-B Visa and other employment-based green cards that require sponsorship from a U.S. Company, the TN Visa does not require company sponsorship. Aside from the citizenship requirement, in order to be eligible to apply for a TN Visa, the foreign national profession must be listed under the NAFTA agreement and the petitioner must have a job offer from a U.S. company. Among the professionals that can seek admission as TN nonimmigrants are doctors, accountants, lawyers, engineers, scientists, pharmacists and teachers. For Canadian nationals, the TN Visa can be obtained directly at the border and there is no cap on the number of visas issued each year. However, for Mexican nationals the cap for TN NAFTA Professional Visa is 5,500. The TN Visa is granted for three (3) years and may be extended indefinitely.

EB-1 Employee Based First Preference (Green Card)

The EB-1 First Preference Green Card is a U.S. immigrant visa that allows a foreign national together with their spouses and children to permanently live and work in the United States and apply for permanent residence, commonly known as Green Card if they fall under one of the following occupational category: (1) the applicant possesses extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics through sustained national or international acclaim, (2) the applicant has been recognized internationally for outstanding achievements in a particular academic field, has minimum 3 years experience in teaching or research in that academic area and will enter the United States to pursue tenure or tenure track teaching or comparable research position at a university or other institution of higher education, or (3) the applicant is a multinational manager or executive who was employed outside the United States in such positions in the 3 years preceding the petition for at least 1 year by a firm or corporation seeks entry to the United States to continue working for the same firm or organization.

EB-2 Employee Based Second Preference (Green Card)

EB-2 Employee Based Second Preference Green Card is a U.S. immigrant visa available to foreign nationals who are a member of the professions holding an advanced degree or its equivalent, or who have an exceptional ability. Aside from these two categories, foreign nationals can seek a national interest waiver under the EB-2 Visa and request that the Labor Certification be waived because it is in the interest of the United States. The jobs that qualify for a national interest waiver are not defined by statute, but national interest waivers are usually granted to those who have exceptional ability and whose employment in the United States would greatly benefit the nation. Those seeking a national interest waiver may self-petition and do not need a U.S. employer to sponsor them.

EB-3 Employee Based Third Preference (Green Card)

The EB-3 Third Preference Green Card is a U.S. immigrant visa that allows a foreign national together with their spouses and children to permanently live and work in the United States and apply for permanent residence, commonly known as Green Card if the EB-3 Visa applicant falls under one of the following occupational category: (1) skilled worker with at least 2 years of job experience or training for positions for which qualified workers are not available in the United States, (2) professionals who possess a U.S. baccalaureate degree or foreign degree equivalent training and are a member of the professions for which qualified workers are not available in the United States, or (3) workers performing unskilled labor requiring less than 2 years training or experience and the work is not of a temporary or seasonal nature.

Contact us, your experienced business immigration lawyers in Miami, Florida, to schedule an appointment for your immigration case and find out more about the Employment Visa sand other visa options for you.

Malescu Law P.A. – Business & Immigration Lawyers