As a United States employer looking to onboard a foreigner onto your team, you must first serve as their sponsor for an employment-based visa. Namely, you may encourage your prospective employee to pursue an EB-1 (priority workers), EB-2 (professionals with advanced degrees or exceptional abilities), EB-3 (skilled workers), or EB-4 (special immigrants) visa with your help. For this, please read on to discover how to sponsor an employment-based visa and how one of the seasoned work visa lawyers at Lupton Law LLC can prepare you with what to expect from the process.
As a U.S. employer, how can I sponsor an employment-based visa?
Simply put, you may file Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on behalf of your prospective employee seeking an EB-1, EB-2, or EB-3 visa. The general requirements for Form I-140 include the following:
- Details about the prospective immigrant employee you wish to hire.
- Details about the open job position you wish to offer this prospective employee.
- Details about your ability to pay the wages offered to this prospective employee.
- Details about your company name, address, tax identification number, financial information, etc.
- Details about this prospective employee’s dependents they wish to immigrate alongside them.
Importantly, you should know that if your prospective employee is after an EB-2 or EB-3 visa, you may have to file for PERM Labor Certification with the United States Department of Labor (USDOL) first. This is unless your prospective employee has already applied for and been granted a national visa waiver. On the other hand, for an EB-4 visa, you may have to pursue Form I-130, Petition for Amerasian Widow(er), or Special Immigrant, rather than Form I-140.
What happens after I file a petition on behalf of a prospective employee?
Depending on which employment-based visa category your prospective employee falls under, and which country they are originating from, the waiting period to process your petition may be quite significant. But once you file your petition,
the USCIS may post an updated processing time estimate on their website. At any rate, your prospective employee must sit tight until you get word back from the USCIS, to avoid illegally entering the United States prematurely.
The hope is that the USCIS eventually approves your petition. So if this happens, they may send it over to the United States Department of State’s National Visa Center (NVC). This is when your prospective employee may step up to the plate, so to speak, and work on applying for their immigrant visa. Also at this time, their spouse and unmarried children younger than 21 years old may apply as dependents for immigrant visas.
As a U.S. employer looking for employees, there is no one better you can turn to than one of the competent work visa lawyers from our firm. So please, call us at Lupton Law LLC as soon as possible.
