Employment visas
Employment sponsorship, explained before it is filed.
Who this is for
Workers and the employers who sponsor them.
Employment-based cases run through several different doors. A company can sponsor a worker for a green card, usually through a test of the labor market and a petition by the employer. People with extraordinary ability, outstanding researchers, and multinational managers may qualify in categories that do not require an employer petition in the same way. Temporary work visas are their own family, each with its own rules.
Which door fits depends on the job offer, the person's background, and the employer's willingness to sponsor. The choice made at the start shapes everything after it, so it is worth making carefully. That is what a first conversation with Abhaya Immigration is for: placing a case in the right door before anything is filed.
Eligibility
The doors, and who fits through them.
General eligibility, stated plainly. A specific case can complicate any of these — a narrow job definition, a degree that does not match the position, an immigration history that raises questions — and none of this is advice about your particular case.
Sponsored green cards (EB-1, EB-2, EB-3)
The employer sponsors the worker for a permanent job offer. Most professional positions first pass a Department of Labor test that no able and available United States worker applied for the job. Advanced degrees, exceptional records, and skilled-work offers sort cases into the different categories, and the category usually shapes how the case is filed.
National interest waiver (EB-2 NIW)
A worker whose proposed work has substantial merit and national importance can ask the agency to waive the job-offer and labor-certification requirements. The person petitions for themselves, and the showing is demanding: the record has to carry the case without an employer behind it.
Extraordinary ability (EB-1A)
A person at the top of a field — the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics — can petition for themselves with sustained national or international acclaim, shown through the defined evidence list: awards, published material about the work, judged contributions, and similar.
Temporary work visas (H-1B, L-1, O-1, TN)
These visas let an employer hire a worker for a defined job for a defined period: specialty occupations, intracompany transfers, extraordinary ability, and North American professionals. Some are capped by annual limits and lotteries. None of them is itself a green card, though some can be built into one over time.
How the process works
From labor certification to the visa.
The Department of Labor and USCIS split most of the work. The general order for the common sponsored path is below.
Labor certification
For most professional positions, the employer first seeks a certification from the Department of Labor that no able and available United States worker applied for the job. The recruitment must follow the regulations exactly, and the record of it becomes the foundation of the case.
The immigrant petition
The employer files Form I-140 with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services for the approved category. In the self-petition categories — the national interest waiver and extraordinary ability — the worker files the petition instead.
The priority date
The date the labor certification or petition is filed usually becomes the case's place in line. The State Department's monthly visa bulletin says which categories and countries can move forward that month. We cannot promise how long any case takes; the agencies decide.
The application
When the category is current, the worker applies to adjust status inside the United States or applies at a consulate abroad. The consular path has its own page: /immigration/consular-processing.
Documents
What to gather.
Every case is different, and the agency can ask for more. These are the categories almost every employment case draws on.
The job and the employer
The offer letter, the job description, and the employer's business records showing it operates and can pay the offered wage. The employer's tax returns and annual reports often belong in the file too.
The worker's qualifications
Degrees and transcripts, license records, and letters from past employers that describe the work in detail — what you did, with what skills, for how long. Titles alone rarely carry the weight; the substance does.
Immigration history
Copies of every prior visa, status document, approval notice, and — yes — every denial or prior petition. The agencies already have these records; a complete file that faces them reads as honest.
Identity and family
Passports, birth and marriage certificates for the worker and any dependents applying along with the case, and certified translations for anything not in English.
What it costs
Fees, stated plainly and published.
Government filing fees are separate from any attorney fee, and they change. The Department of Labor charges nothing for the labor certification; USCIS and the State Department publish their current fees on their own sites. The Department of Labor also bars passing certain recruitment and legal costs to the worker in the sponsored path.
Attorney fees for the filings in this practice are flat fees per filing, published in
Abhaya Immigration's fee catalog
, so the cost is known before anything starts. We cannot promise approval or a timeline; the relevant agencies decide.
Common questions
Questions people ask before hiring anyone.
How long will my case take?
It depends on the category, the country of birth, and the agencies' current workload. USCIS publishes its processing times and the State Department publishes the visa bulletin monthly — both are linked from our free-support hub. What we can promise is an honest reading of those numbers for your category at the start; what we cannot promise is a date.
Can I change employers during the process?
Sometimes, and the rules are technical. The law has provisions that let an approved petition be honored for a new job in the same field after defined stages are reached, but the details decide the case. Ask before you sign anything with a new employer.
Who pays — the employer or the worker?
It depends on which fee and which stage. In the sponsored path, the Department of Labor requires the employer to carry the labor-certification costs; other government fees are sometimes negotiated. The rules exist to protect the worker, and the allocation should be settled in writing early.
I have no employer. Can I still qualify?
Possibly. The national interest waiver and the extraordinary ability category let a person petition for themselves, without a sponsoring employer. Both demand a strong record, and both are all-or-nothing in a way an employer-sponsored case is not — the evidence list decides.
What is the visa bulletin, and why does it matter?
The State Department publishes it monthly. It lists which green-card categories and which countries of birth can move forward that month. When your category is listed as current, the application stage can begin; when it is not, the case waits. Our free-support hub links to it with a short guide on how to read it.
Can a temporary visa become a green card?
Often, yes — many employment green cards start while the worker holds a temporary visa, and some temporary categories are designed with that path in mind. But the temporary status carries its own rules about intent and maintenance, and a misstep there can complicate the green-card case. The two stages should be planned together.
Talk through sponsorship with Abhaya Immigration
A first conversation covers which category fits, who files what, and what the employer and the worker each carry. Abhaya Immigration, a Shook Law PC practice, advises on employment-based visas and employer sponsorship.
Talk to Abhaya Immigration