America is a land of immigrants. The country has a history of welcoming foreign workers to expand the country’s overall knowledge base and intellectual power. Expats from all over the world with various skills have flocked for generations in this land of opportunity. That is the beauty of the country, to recognise talent and make it a part of its own talent pool.
In modern day, this has become the basis of the visa supported by the Immigration and Nationality Act for US employers to acquire international talent – the H1B Visa. For a quick (extremely crisp) crash course on what it is, here are the steps to get an H1B Visa.
Upon employment offer to a non-American citizen from an US employer, the employer sponsors the employee through the US Immigration system.
The employer pays the employee’s visa fee and files a Labor Condition Application with the US Department of Labor (Top companies with the most LCA applications). Upon approval of the Labor application, the employer files a petition for an H1B visa for the employee.
Once that is approved, the employee begins working with the company and applies for the H1B Visa.
The H1B approval is determined through a lottery system to fill the cap of 65,000 H1B visas under the general bachelor’s degree category with and an additional 20,000 exemption for just Master’s international students with a US degree. So, for those who happen to have an American graduate degree (Student F1 Visa to H1B Visa), the probability to be selected is higher given the larger pool (65,000 plus 20,000).
According to recent stats the selection rate for H1B applications (sourced from USCIS), the total number of registrations (which included multiple registrations and unique registrations for beneficiaries) for the year 2024 was 780,884 out of which 188,440 were selected (24%) for further processing. The number selected is higher, in any given year, than the cap of 85,000 to account for cancellation of H1B petition applications as well as denials of H1B petitions.
Thus, the H1B process typically offers less than a 50% chance of H1B processing against the hundreds of thousands of registrations. To combat the uncertainty and rejection from the H1B approval process, applicants can look towards other alternative options that also offer the opportunity to work in the US, albeit with other restrictions and reservations.
Let us explore those other visa categories that allow foreign workers to work in USA.
What are the alternatives to H1B Visa?
The following are nonimmigrant visas allowing foreign workers the ability to work in the US temporarily with US employers filing for their legal status with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Nonimmigrant work visa options in the US
E1 Treaty Traders
The E1 nonimmigrant visa allows qualified individuals from countries with a trade treaty with United States to engage in international trade and work there. Employees of such organisation may also be eligible to apply under this category. Families of E1 treaty traders and employees are also eligible.
E2 Treaty Investors
The E2 nonimmigrant visa allows qualified individuals from countries with a treaty with USA to be admitted to the USA when investing capital in US businesses.
E3 Visa
This particular nonimmigrant visa applies only to Australian nationals. Specialty occupation workers from Australia can work in the United States as long as they provide their services in a specialty capacity. That is, they need to have theoretical and practical high end knowledge with a bachelor’s or higher degree in the specialty field.
H-2A and H-2B Visa
US employers who qualify can hire foreign nationals for agricultural jobs. These employers need to file the Form I-129 petition for nonimmigrant worker on the worker’s behalf.
The H-2B visa allows US employers to bring in foreign workers for non-agricultural jobs.
L-1A Visa
The L-1A nonimmigrant visa allows a US employer to transfer an executive or manager level employee from one of its foreign offices to its American branch. This visa also allows a non US employer to send its executive or managerial level employee to the US to establish operations in there. Similar to others, the employer needs to file a form I-129 Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker on behalf of the employee.
O-1 Visa
This visa for individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement allows individuals with extraordinary ability in science, arts, education, business, athletics, or media, the ability to work in the US as a specialised highly accomplished worker. Spouses and children of O1 visa holder is also eligible to enter the US.
Immigrant work visa options in the US
Besides the above, there are also several options available for permanent workers. The USCIS website specifies almost 140,000 immigrant visas for international workers to immigrate to the US based on their job skills. Here are some of them (obtained from USCIS).
EB-1 First Preference Visa
No Labor Certification is required under this category. Individuals with extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, outstanding professors or researchers, and multinational managers and executives. This visa category also automatically green lights a Green Card application for permanent residentship in the US.
EB-2 Second Preference
Advanced degree holders (PhD or more) with extraordinary abilities and progressive work experience in the field are eligible to apply for the second preference EB category. They can even get a waiver for the Labor Certification process.
EB-3 Third Preference
Skilled workers with at least 2 years of training and experience in the field can apply. The applicants need to have a full time job offer and the employer needs to apply for Labor Certification on behalf of the skilled worker. The applicant should be suited to perform the job duties as specified under the labor certification.
Even unskilled workers can apply under this category as long as the employer is able to establish that there are no qualified workers in the US available to perform said job duties.
STEM Employment Pathways
USA welcomes scientific, engineering, and mathematics, talent from across the globe to join the US workforce. Their contribution is believed to create more jobs and opportunities for all Americans. There are both immigrant and nonimmigrant pathways to gain work permit in the US, according to USCIS.gov.
We have already talked about the EB-1 immigrant visa categories for those with extraordinary scientific abilities. But there are the other nonimmigrant pathways as well like O-1, H1-B, L-1 that allow temporary living and working permits to non-citizens.
But even beyond all those, the F-1 student visa also avails its STEM international students the opportunity to work for up to 24 months with an OPT Extension, in the US. Thus STEM students have the ability to work an additional 2 years to figure out a work visa option while they continue their US employment, legally.
Read Student experience of life after US MBA – OPT and H1B and Top STEM MBA programs
The details of eligibility and processing in each of these categories are rather tedious to be summarised in a single article. We suggest you acquaint yourself here and embark on further research using the USCIS website that manages to answer most (if not all) visa related queries.
One thing that does come off quite clear in whichever, nonimmigrant or immigrant, visa you may be seeking, you will need a job offer from a US employer who is willing to sponsor your petition and skills that are commensurate for the job position. For the rest, seek your employer’s guidance and keep your fingers crossed.
Good Luck!
