October 25th, 2009 | 
Author: Differences Between H-1B, J-1, E-1, E-2, L-1, and R-1 Work Visas
H-1B Specialty Occupations
H-1B visas are the most common route to work in the United States for most professional foreign workers. To obtain an H-1B visa you need a job offer from a U.S. employer, where the position requires a minimum four-year baccalaureate degree, and the applicant has the relevant education and/or work experience to fulfill the requirement. Additionally, the employer must pay the prevailing wage in that specific area for that specific position. Specialty occupations in this category are: information technology professionals, physicians who graduated from U.S. medical schools and passed parts 1 and 2 of the USMLE, physicians who graduated from foreign medical schools and passed all three parts of the USMLE, registered nurses with state RN licenses, journalists, accountants, researchers and scientists.
J-1 Exchange visitors
The Department of State (formerly USIA) grants numerous educational institutions and organizations the right to sponsor persons as exchange visitors on the J-1 visa program. J-1 visa holders are restricted to working, studying or participating in the specific exchange programs for which the visa has been approved. Persons with skills listed on the USIA’s exchange visitors skills list, or graduate medical training requires that the J-1 visa holder comply with a two year foreign residency requirement (INA sec. 212(e)) after the expiration of his/her stay.
E-1 Treaty Traders and E-2 Treaty Investors
Owners and key employees of businesses that conduct a substantial volume of trade between the United States and the home country are treaty traders (E-1) and a treaty investor (E-2) has invested in the United States and jobs created for U.S. workers. To qualify for an E-2, the home country must have a treaty with the United States.
L-1 Intracompany Transferees
One qualifies for an L-1 visa if you have been employed outside the United States as a manager, executive (L-1A) or person with specialized knowledge (L-1B) for at least one of the last three years, and you are transferred to the United States to be employed in a similar position. The U.S. company to which you are transferring must be a branch, subsidiary, affiliate or joint venture partner of the non-U.S. company. The non-U.S. company must remain in operation while you have the L-1 visa. Said company may be either a foreign division of an American-based company or it may have originated outside the United States. Any form of business is adequate, including but not limited to corporations, LLCs, LLPs, partnerships, joint ventures and sole proprietorships. There are no quota limits on L-1 visas.
R-1 Religious Workers
To qualify for an R-1 visa, you must be a member of a religious denomination for at least 2 years and have a job offer in the United States to work for an affiliate of that same religious denomination. R-1 visas are for either clergy or lay religious workers. Successful applicants need not have worked for the religious organization but must have been members of it for at least two years.
Other Work Visa Categories
Other temporary work visa categories include: temporary trainees (H-3), persons of extraordinary ability in the arts, sciences, education, business or sports (O-1/2) and athletes and entertainers (P).
Reasons Visas are Deined
The immigration laws of the United States, in order to protect the health, welfare, and security of the U.S., prohibit the issuance of a visa to certain applicants. Examples of applicants who must be refused visas are those who:
* Have committed serious criminal act.
* Are terrorists, subversives, members of a totalitarian party, or former Nazi war criminals.
* Have used illegal means to enter the U.S.
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Types of work permits
There are several kinds of visas that allow you to work in the United States. Some of these visas are non-immigrant visas that are issued for fixed time periods and usually specific jobs, and the rest are permanent residence visas – green cards – that allow you work any job and become a U.S. citizen.
The most common and easiest to obtain non-immigrant visa is the H-1B professional person’s visa. If you have a college degree or higher and have a job offer from a U.S. company that will sponsor you, you can obtain an H-1B visa. The visa traditionally takes around 30 days to obtain, is valid for one to three years, is renewable, and requires that you work only for the sponsoring company. If you want to change jobs, you will need to obtain a new H-1B visa.
If you come from a country that has a treaty of navigation with the U.S. – such as any country from the European Union – you can obtain an E-2 visa that allows you to start your own business in the U.S. The business must be well capitalized, with at least $25,000, and not represent your only source of income. You can also obtain the E-2 visa in roughly 30 days. The H-1B and the E-2 visas are non-immigrant visas that can be converted to permanent residence visas.
There are also visas for people of unique abilities such as professional athletes and scientists.
An investment visa allows you to invest $500,000 in a business in a rural area or $1,000,000 in an urban area. The investment visa is a permanent residence visa.
SPONSORSHIP
If you do not have a college degree or skills that are in demand, such as computer software engineering or nursing, you must have a job offer with a U.S. company that is willing to sponsor you for a labor certification. This process takes many years to complete but leaves you with a green card.
The immigration laws of the United States, in order to protect the health, welfare, and security of the U.S., prohibit the issuance of a visa to certain applicants. Examples of applicants who must be refused visas are those who:
Have a communicable disease, or have a dangerous physical or mental disorder.
Have committed serious criminal act.
Are terrorists, subversives, members of a totalitarian party, or former Nazi war criminals.
Have used illegal means to enter the U.S.
Advertising is a relatively recent development in the legal profession, and not all law firms engage in it today. Nonetheless, it is advisable for every law firm to take note of the important resource the internet has become to consumers seeking products and services. Computers are a household standard, and the internet provides information on every profession, in formats from simple ‘yellow page’ listings to proprietary web pages with audio and video presentations. Even among lawyers and firms that chose not to advertise, the importance of the internet as a consumer resource should not be overlooked.
There is a large assortment of online listing vehicles for attorneys. A lawyer seeking to be included in commercial online attorney listings could pay to have his or her name inserted in such sites as findlaw.com, lawinfo.com, lawyers.com, or the many ‘yellow pages’ services now online. There are at least four national listing services for personal injury attorneys, and others for family law, criminal law and so forth. Association membership is a vehicle for specialty listings: the Consumer Attorneys Association, the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, The Council of Parent Attorneys, etc.
Then there are the localized ecommerce service listings for regions that are just as aggressive in seeking exposure on the search engines. In short, an attorney could make a significant investment in listing services alone. However, a simple listing is a hit-and-miss proposition: there is nothing in a mere listing that invites interest from the shopper. A personalized web site for an attorney or a law firm is the highest and best use of the internet.
A law firm with its own hosted website can accomplish a number of things. Most people who are conducting a random search for an attorney are probably somewhat frightened, not certain of the law regarding their problem, and concerned about cost. Moreover, there exists today a widespread skepticism about attorneys, especially among the uninitiated. A hosted website can ease some of those uncertainties, and thus invite contact from the potential client.
The website can describe the firm’s areas of legal focus. It can act as an educational tool, explaining the basics of selected areas of law and suggesting some initial steps for the potential client. Eventually the client will end up in a lawyer’s office somewhere, so providing some initial online education will give the law firm a benign and positive first impression.
A hosted website can provide and email template for an initial inquiry or invite a telephone call, ‘no strings attached’. The website can suggest a few online sources that provide detailed explanations of various legal specialties. Finally, the law firm’s web site can address the issue of payment and explain any options that might be available in that area.
As with other forms of media, defense and personal injury attorneys are the most likely to be found using the web as an advertising service. Most law firms with other sorts of specialties that use hosted websites tend to be a little more subtle, stressing the firm’s longevity or stability, its successes and perhaps providing biographies of the firm’s principal members.
A hosted web site can be an effective introductory tool for an attorney or a law firm. It can provide an initial level of comfort with the firm before any personal inquiries need be made. It can establish the firm’s credentials in its chosen areas of legal specialization and it can make the process of initial contact a comfortable one by explaining how and when fee structures are applied.
Connecting a potential client with a hosted web site can, in part, be a function of the site through the use of keyword optimization. But it is probably more practical to assume that the initial reference will come from some other, more common source such as a former client or the local bar association. At that point, the hosted attorney’s website becomes an effective outreach tool, minimizing the intimidating effect of a simple telephone number and a downtown address.