Temporary visas (also known as “Non-immigrant Visas” or “NIV”) allow foreign nationals to come to the United States to study/work on a temporary basis. Depending on your needs, our firm can prepare any of the following temporary visa applications:

• B1/B2 Visitor’s Visas
• E Treaty Trader (E1) and Treaty Investor (E2) Visas
• F-1 Student Visa
• H-1B Visa for Special Occupation
• J-1 Visa for Exchange Visitor
• K-1 Visa for Fiancé and Fiancée of US Citizen
• K-3 Visa for Spouse of US Citizen
• L-1A Visa (Executive and Manager) and L-1B Visa (Specialized Knowledge) for Intracompany Transferees
• L-1 Blanket Petition for Large, Well-established Multinational Companies
• O-1A/O-1B Visa for a Foreign Nationals with Extraordinary Ability
• P Visa for Outstanding Athletes, Athletic Teams, and Entertainment Companies
• R-1 Visa for Religious Workers
• TN Visa for Canadian and Mexican Nationals under NAFTA
• Change of Status and Extension of Status NIV Application

The EB-5 green card allows foreign investors to immigrate to the U.S. through a qualifying investment in a project that is located in the U.S. and create U.S. jobs. The required minimum investment amount is currently $800,000 or $1,050,000 (depending on the location of the project) in a U.S. enterprise that must create ten (10) jobs for the U.S. workers. While certain investors with exceptional entrepreneurial skills choose to make an investment as a standalone EB-5 investor (I-526) through their own direct EB-5 project, most of our investor clients choose to invest through the Regional Center sponsored projects (I-526E), which can pool the large sum of investment from multiple different EB-5 investors, without having to develop their own project.

In addition, all foreign investments used for the EB-5 project must come from a lawful source and transferred through a lawful path. Our attorney, Evelyn Moon, is highly experienced in analyzing and designing the unique source of funds strategy and preparing a thorough source of funds report for our clients.

The individuals, who wish to establish their startup business in the US, as well as the U.S. start-up companies that plan to hire a foreign national employee(s), have the following non-immigrant and immigrant visa options to apply or sponsor for their foreign employees:

• H-1B Temporary Visa for Special Occupation
• O-1A/O-1B Temporary Visa for a Foreign Nationals with Extraordinary Ability
• L-1 Temporary Visa (Executive and Manager) and L-1B Visa (Specialized Knowledge) for Intracompany Transferees
• EB-1A Green Card for Individuals with Extraordinary Ability in the Sciences, Arts, Education, Business, or Athletics
• EB-1C or EB-1-1* Green Card for Intracompany Transferee Executive/Manager – only if the US company has been doing business for at least 1 year
• EB-2 National Interest Waiver Green Card for Individuals with an Advanced Degree or with Exceptional Ability in the Sciences, Arts, or Business, whose proposed endeavor will benefit the US.
• PERM based EB-2 and EB-3 Green Card* – only if the US company has been doing business and has sufficient financial ability to pay the proffered wage to the foreign employee.
• TN Visa for Canadian and Mexican Nationals under NAFTA

US employers, both for-profit companies and non-profit organizations, including churches, can sponsor their foreign employees’ green card through the Employment Based (EB) green card. There are several EB green card categories, including the following:

• First Preference (EB-1) – Priority Workers
  • Aliens with extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics;
  • Outstanding professors and researchers; or
  • Certain multinational managers and executives.
• Second Preference (EB-2) – Individuals who are members of professionals holding advanced degree or who have exceptional ability (including NIW)
• Third Preference (EB-3) – Skills Workers, Professionals, or other workers
• Fourth Preference (EB-4) – Religious Worker

Individuals who are family members of U.S. citizens and green card holders may be eligible to obtain US lawful permanent residency based on specific family relationships.

If you are an immediate relative of a U.S. citizen, you may be eligible to become a U.S. lawful permanent resident based on the relationship to the U.S. citizen without being subject to certain numerical restrictions on immigration each year, which means that they can immigrate to the U.S. at any time without waiting for availability of the immigrant visa numbers. The immediate relatives to U.S. citizen refer to parents (if the U.S. citizen is at least 21 years old), spouse, and unmarried children under the age of 21.

However, other relatives to U.S. citizens or U.S. lawful permanent residents are subject to certain numerical restrictions on immigration each year. These other family members’ eligibility to apply for a Green Card is described in the following family “preference immigrant” categories:

• First preference (F1) - unmarried sons and daughters (21 years of age and older) of U.S. citizens;
• Second preference (F2A) - spouses and children (unmarried and under 21 years of age) of lawful permanent residents;
• Second preference (F2B) - unmarried sons and daughters (21 years of age and older) of lawful permanent residents;
• Third preference (F3) - married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens; and
• Fourth preference (F4) - brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens (if the U.S. citizen is 21 years of age and older).

After going through the Trump Administration and Covid-19 pandemic, and now with the EB-5 Reform of Integrity Act recently passed, we are living in a brave new world, where we are constantly faced with new challenges in dealing with our immigration cases, that are unreasonably delayed and/or denied. While we are highly experienced in refiling the denied cases and successfully getting them approved, without much choice, we sometimes have to file a lawsuit against the U.S. immigration government in the federal court to fight the unreasonable delay in case processing and/or to fight the denials that are baseless.

If your case has been pending for too long or received a denial notice and are now seeking a second opinion, contact us to schedule a consultation.

If you are born outside of the US, you can still become a U.S. citizen through naturalization. If you wish to learn more about the requirements and your eligibility, contact us to schedule a consultation.