Chicago Employment-Based Immigration Attorney

If you wish to work in the United States, you will need the appropriate visa and work authorization. Temporary, nonimmigrant work visas are available for a wide range of utilities and scenarios, but if you wish to live in the United States permanently, you will need to be sponsored by a U.S.-based employer.

You will only be eligible for a green card through employment if a U.S.-based employer is willing to sponsor you. Employers can only sponsor immigrants that are hired to fill full-time positions. These positions must be fairly compensated at the current industry rate (or a prevailing rate), and employers must prove that no domestic workers were available to take the job. A prospective employer will need to obtain a labor certification to prove the job you are filling meets these conditions.

Only 140,000 employment-based green cards are dispersed by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) each year. These visas are issued across five preference categories. Our Chicago employment-based immigration attorney can help you strategize on how to best position you in the preference category system.

To obtain an employment-based green card, you will need to apply under one of the following preference categories:

• EB-1: Priority Workers. The first preference category receives top priority and encapsulates several types of professionals, including individuals that can demonstrate “extraordinary abilities” in the athletics, arts, business, education, or science industries. “Outstanding” professors and researchers and multinational executives and managers can also qualify.
• EB-2: Professionals with Advanced Degrees and Exceptional Workers. The second preference category covers individuals with advanced degrees, including master’s degrees, Juris Doctors, PhDs, and foreign equivalents. Professionals with bachelor’s degrees and at least five years of relevant work experience can also qualify. Individuals that can demonstrate “exceptional” abilities in their chosen field are eligible under this category. (Note that the burden of proof for “extraordinary abilities” is substantially higher than that of “exceptional abilities.”) Workers that are self-petitioning via a National Interest Waiver must additionally qualify under the terms of this category. 
• EB-3: Professionals, Skilled Workers, and Unskilled Workers. The third preference category includes workers with bachelor’s degrees (or foreign equivalents), “skilled” workers with at least two years of job experience or training, and “unskilled” workers with less than two years of job experience or training. 
• EB-4: Certain Special Immigrants. The fourth preference category covers miscellaneous exceptions, including some government translators and certain religious workers.
• EB-5: Immigrant Investors. If you are willing and able to invest at least $900,000 in a USCIS-approved, U.S.-based commercial enterprise, you may qualify for a green card through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. Your investment must create or preserve at least 10 American jobs.

After a visa becomes available to you, you will need to either adjust your status or complete consular processing. If you are currently in the United States on another visa, you can apply to adjust your status by submitting the necessary paperwork to USCIS. If you are outside the country, you will need to go through consular processing at your home country’s U.S. embassy or consular office. This will generally involve undergoing a medical examination and an in-person interview with a USCIS official.