What does the term "immigration" mean? If one wishes a strict definition, it means moving to the U.S. to take up a permanent residence. In reality, most people use the term "immigration" to convey a vast array of benefits and visa types available to qualified foreign nationals. Our website contains detailed information containing most aspects of U.S. immigration law. To help organize the type of information that most people seek, we provide here a general description of the types of the most commonly sought visas.

To begin, you must keep in mind three things. First, there are two main avenues for gaining permission to enter or remain in the United States: via family or employment. Second, within the employment based avenues, both temporary (known as nonimmigrant) and permanent (known as immigrant) visas exist. Family based visas are only for immigrants, those wishing to make their permanent home in the U.S. Third, the green card that so many desire is merely a card (no longer green) evidencing lawful permanent residence. Lawful permanent residence is achieved either by changing nonimmigrant status to immigrant status in the U.S., known as "adjustment of status", or by obtaining an immigrant visa at a U.S. consulate abroad.

Within the family-based categories, foreign nationals eligible to seek lawful permanent residence include: the children (under 21), spouses and parents of US citizens; unmarried sons and daughters (over 21) of US citizens; spouses, children and unmarried sons and daughters of lawful permanent residents; married sons and daughters of US citizens; and siblings of adult US citizens.

As stated above, the employment-based categories include both nonimmigrant/temporary and immigrant/permanent visas. Some of the more popular nonimmigrant visas include H-1B visas for holders of bachelor degrees or higher who have been hired to fill a position requiring their degree or a degree related to theirs; L-1 visa for managers, executives or persons having specialized knowledge within a company who are coming from employment abroad to work for a U.S. company legally related to their foreign employer; and F-1 visas for students wishing to study full-time in a U.S. school.

Employment-based immigrant visas are divided into five preference categories. Under the first preference are those exhibiting extraordinary ability (sustained national or international recognition in their field), outstanding researchers and professors, and multinational executives and managers. The second preference includes members of the professions hold advanced degrees or exhibiting exceptional ability. The third preference consists of skilled workers filling positions which require at least two years experience, and professionals holding a bachelor degree or higher. The fourth preference is a catch all category for special immigrants such as clergy, religious workers, certain foreign medical graduates, and certain court dependents. The last category is for foreign nationals investing a minimum of $1,000,000 (or under certain circumstances $500,000) in the US and employing a minimum of 10 workers full-time.

Last, most visas are limited in number. This means that a qualified applicant may need to wait for some period of time before receiving the desire visa.

We hope this general overview of immigration law is helpful. Please refer to the links on the left side of this site's homepage for more specific, detailed information on the immigration process.