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If you've decided to move, then you need to work on your getting your visa. The making the move section covers
the preparation in getting documents you may need and the actual process of getting a VISA. There are a lot of great
U.S VISA websites already out there, and this section is not designed to be an everything you need to know immigration portal. Rather,
it serves as a quick primer to give you a basic background so you can begin doing educated research as opposed to blindly
stumbling around the net trying to figure out what you need to be reading up on.
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There are other visas, but these represent the major options. To work in the U.S you must have a work visa. You must also get this visa before you move, and to get the VISA you must have a job from an employer who's willing to sponsor you. For those who have lost their jobs while on a current visa you're technically supposed to leave, but the reality is that the INS really isn't concerned about that right now, so it is possible to look for another job while out of work on a previous (even if expired) visa (though I would not recommend it).
Work visas are also tied to the company, so it does not permit you to just simply for any company. However the H1-B is transferrable to other companies. Although H1-B's require university graduates, it is possible to prove that if you have been doing the work that only a university
graduate could do you obviously must have university level skills. Most TN classifications require university degrees OR a certain number
of years in related work experience. It is possible to use classifications similar to "assistant to engineer/scientist" to get around that.
Permanent Residency (aka Green Card) is similar to Canada's classification of Landed Immigrant. It entitles you to work freely in the country and receive benefits, however it doesn't give you the rights of citizenship (such as the ability to vote). Permanent Residency is the ultimate goal for most, not only because you can work for anyone, but it also elevates your status when it comes to credit and loan worthiness. To get a green card you must either win the green card lottery (only 55000/yr issued), marry a citizen, or go through the long process of adjustment of status. It takes 2 to 10 years to get residency, so doing it on a TN visa is possible but difficult.
Usually for Canadians the best process is to start with a TN visa (quick and easy to get), then transfer to an H1-B (3mos, but can be done while working). Once on the H1-B you can begin the green card process. Various stages of the process take different times to complete based on where you work and where you are born. This is because of the queues; states that file more petitions have longer queues (eg California and Virgnia), and the more people who share your citizenship (eg Indian, Chinese) share the same national queue.
Basic steps to greencardhood: |
Produced by Tariq Ahmed, Email at tariq@dopejam.com. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
