Permanent USA Visa
There are five different categories of employment-based USA work visas that are synonymous with USA permanent residence (acquisition of a green card). These are referred to as the EB preference system. The world wide limit on US work visas for UK residents and other foreign nationals is 140,000 plus unused family-sponsored preference visas from the previous year. These visas allow their beneficiaries to live and work in the USA on a permanent basis
There is descending order of petitions allowed for each category, thus,
the EB-1 has priority in regards to how many petitions are allowed for
this for EB visas, then the second preference and so on and so forth.
The first employment-based preference type of US visa is available to
persons of extraordinary ability, (EB-1) outstanding professors and
researchers and certain executives and managers of multinational organizations.
The second preference type known as the EB-2 visa category allows for
the USA
immigration of foreign nationals with advanced degrees and those
with exceptional ability whose employment in the USA would be in the
national interest of the country.
The third preference is classified as the EB-3 category. This includes skilled workers, professionals and other workers.
There are adequate visa numbers projected in the foreseeable future for skilled workers and professionals. However, there are only 10,000 visas allowed world wide each year for foreign nationals who are categorized as other workers. This is further being reduced to 5,000 applications worldwide. Thus, there is a definite advantage to being classified as a skilled worker/professional or a different EB category altogether.
A labor certification or schedule A petition is required for all EB-3 petitions. An immigrant petition form (form I-140) must also be filed with documents proving the employer and beneficiary satisfy the regulatory regulations.
