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Green Card Via Employment or Investment
Your employer can sponsor your Green Card, and you can get a Green Card via investment. An employer can sponsor a Green Card for a foreign employee that is already living in the United States under a student visa or a H1B or other nonimmigrant visa. The purpose of sponsoring a Green Card for a foreign national is for that foreign national to be able to come to the United States and fill a position. However, the employer must show that they made an attempt to fill the position with a U.S. citizen or a Green Card holder before they attempt to fill it with a foreign national.
On the other hand, our attorney states that you can simply invest $1 million or $500,000 in some instances, to get a U.S. Green Card based on investment in a U.S. business. The $500,000 is allowed in cases where you are investing in a business that is located in a rural area. Rural area means any location in the outer boundaries of a city populated by at least 20,000 people.
Employment Based Green Card Preference Categories Explained
Applications for a Green Card under this process are divided into 4 categories. The category that you apply under will determine the time it will take for the Green Card to be processed. The following are the Employment Based Green Card categories:
EB-1 Green Card Lawyer
- EB-1: for workers with extraordinary ability in the arts, education, sciences, professors, researchers and so on. People working in the U.S. as managers and executives of multinational corporations, L1A to Green Card applicants also fall under this category.
EB-2 Green Card Attorney
- EB-2: Foreign nationals with above average skills and people with extraordinary ability in fields like sciences, arts or business, and advanced degree professionals are given preference under this category. Some kinds of physicians are also given preference under this category
EB-3 Green Card Attorney
- EB-3: Skilled foreign nationals with a minimum of 2 years of training or experience, and those with a Bachelor/graduate degree are included in this category. EB-3 is less stringent compared to the other categories and that is why it has the most applicants and is very competitive.
EB-4 Green Card Attorney
- EB-4: Special immigrants such as religious workers affiliated with non-profits and translators with the U.S. Armed Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan fall under this category. Foreign employees of the U.S. and NATO, and visa lottery winners also fall under this category.
Green Cards For Investors
Houston Investment Based Green Card Lawyers
EB-5 Green Card Lawyer
Investment based Green Card applicants fall under EB-5 preference category. For you to be eligible for the EB-5 Visa, you must have invested at least $500,000 and created 10 new jobs for U.S. workers. The person must be investing in a “regional center” designated by USCIS. While the USCIS designates these regional centers, the centers are actually run privately and work to promote economic growth. Regional centers participate in real estate development and enhance export sales and so on. There is a lot of documentation and filling of forms involved in investor based immigration. Your immigration attorney can help you ensure that the forms are filled correctly and the needed documents are available.
You may also be interested in Same Sex Marriage Green Cards. Find Houston Immigration Law Firm.