Requirements for Getting an EB1 Visa as a Priority Worker
Priority workers receive top preference when it comes to U.S. work-based visas or green cards. But who meets the criteria for a “priority” worker? This type of designation applies to highly skilled workers, who include college instructors, scientists, and officers of international businesses who are relocating to operate in the United States.
Acquiring an EB1 visa as a priority worker is usually much less difficult than getting one in the other work-related green card classes. This is because the company doesn’t have to begin by trying to solicit an American employee for the position and then requesting a labor qualification for him or her.
EB-1 Subtype 1: Workers With Extraordinary Abilities
A person who has demonstrated extraordinary skill in the scientific, athletic, artistic, educational, or entrepreneurial disciplines is eligible for a priority worker’s visa. The individual’s accomplishments will need to be widely acknowledged, having brought them a substantial amount of long-term, worldwide recognition.
This usually means demonstrating that the foreigner is a publicly recognized innovator in his or her specific creative, educational, athletic, or scientific discipline. A job proposal is unnecessary for this subtype providing that the individual will stay active within his or her area of specialty following arrival in the U.S.
EB-1 Subtype 2: Outstanding Researchers and Professors
A person with a global standing for being exceptional in a specific educational discipline can, if provided with a job proposal from an American company, receive a priority worker’s visa as part of the outstanding researchers and professors subtype. They will be required to display proof of a minimum of three years of on-the-job experience either instructing or performing research in the pertinent scholarly discipline.
The job proposal that the candidate is relocating to America for has to be a certain tenured educating or studying job at a college or university. Alternatively, if the job is located in a research facility, it has to be a long-term placement.
Not all employers can utilize this green card subtype. They have to be “qualified,” which means they must be either colleges or private study departments with a minimum of three full-time analysts on the roster. Private companies are also required to demonstrate a background of advancing progress in scientific research.
EB-1 Subtype 3: International Managers and Executives
This EB-1 subtype is restricted to administrators and directors who have been employed by an eligible international business no less than one of the last three years. Alternatively, if the individual has already entered the country with a short-term visa, they may be eligible for a priority worker’s visa due to being actively employed as a manager or professional at the organization for one of the required three years prior to entering the U.S.
The person has to be about to accept an executive or administrative job with an American department, partner, or division of the exact same organization. The United States branch is required to prove that it’s been operating for a minimum of one year.
In addition to the individual applicant’s need to satisfy numerous prerequisites for visa approval, the employing company – which includes its overseas and local branches – also has to satisfy specific requirements, such as that both branches are either:
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distinct divisions of one parent company
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a partnership wherein the original corporation owns 50% or holds equal management and voting authority
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linked up to ensure one organization is subordinate to the other, or
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related in a way that both organizations are controlled by one individual, business, or team of businesses.
Effort will also need to be expended to prove that the offered job – within as well as outside of the United States – is in an administrative or executive role.
Getting an EB-1 Visa Isn’t an Exact Science
The rules listed above are only portions of the legislation, and it isn’t always a straightforward task to know which kinds of job positions or individual visa candidates will be approved as EB-1 priority workers. To learn more, it’s a good idea to check with an
immigration lawyer who has experience-based knowledge in dealing with EB-1 visas.