United States Visa(2)issue of Immigrant visas and non-immigrant visas | Is a green card a type of visa?
I want to apply for an outstanding talent visa in the United States. Should I apply for O-1 or EB-1A? Actually, both are outstanding talent visas. I want to apply for a transnational professional manager visa in the United States. Should I apply for L-1 or EB-1C? Actually, both are transnational professional manager visas. It seems that EB-1A is more powerful than O-1, but why do I have to wait in China after applying for EB-1A, while I can work directly in the United States after applying for O-1? These EBs sound like they are not the same as H, O, etc. What is the difference between them?
The reason for this is that some visas are non-immigrant visas, while some visas are immigrant visas. Today we will talk about the differences between these different types of visas.
20 Lessons on US Visas, Let Your Company Easily Enter the US. I am an American lawyer, Attorney Liu, and I will provide you with an in-depth interpretation of the legal logic behind entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley.
1. Broad and narrow categories of visas
In the last issue, we said that visa in a narrow sense is a visa other than a green card, or in other words, visa in a narrow sense is a temporary visa, and visa in a broad sense is all types of visas including a green card, that is, it includes both temporary visas and permanent visas.
In this issue, we will go deeper into the classification.
Visas can be defined at three levels: the broadest, broad and narrow definitions .
1. The broadest definition of visa includes all types of visas, including non-immigrant visas, immigrant visas, and green cards, and permanent visas are green cards. This definition of visas is rarely used in daily life. When most people mention visas in daily life, they often refer to the following.
2. In a broad sense, visas do not include green cards, but all other visas, including immigrant visas and non-immigrant visas. This is also the most common reference when we hear people say "visa" in daily life.
3. In a narrow sense, visa does not include green cards or immigrant visas, but only refers to non-immigrant visas, such as student visas and work visas. This term is also used more frequently in daily life.
We have also drawn a table here to compare non-immigrant visas, immigrant visas and green cards. Now you must feel that this is information overload. Let us first introduce these three concepts separately, and then everyone can look at this table.
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2. Non-immigrant visa
As the name suggests, a non-immigrant visa is a permit for a short-term stay in the United States without the purpose of immigrating to the United States.
2.1 Not for the purpose of immigrating to the United States
This should be quite clear. I am here to study and work. After completing my studies, I will return to my home country and will not stay in the United States for long.
2.2 Short-term stay
This short-term stay is not really short. For example, the B-1/B-2 business travel visa is indeed short, only 6 months.
As for the F1 student visa, it takes 4 years to study for an undergraduate degree, and it may take 5 or 8 years to study for a master's or doctoral degree. This is already quite long.
As for work visas, H1-B is 3+3 for a total of 6 years, and L-1 is 1+2+2+2 for a total of 7 years.
So the short-term non-immigrant visa is not very short.
The following list shows all the types of non-immigrant visas in the United States. Let’s go through them briefly.
The first one is the B-1/B-2 business travel visa, which everyone knows. Whether it is parents coming to the United States for tourism or Chinese companies sending employees to the United States for short-term inspections, this is used.
E trade and investment visa, among which E2 is the most widely used. You may wonder why I have never heard of this kind of visa. This is because it is only open to companies included in the US trade treaties, so Chinese citizens cannot use it.
The following F and M are both student visas, but we usually hear about F and have never heard that M is also a student visa, because M is mainly for chefs, technicians, hotel managers and so on.
H technical personnel visa is a typical work visa. All the high-tech programmers who come to big American companies are H-type. You say, Lawyer Liu, why do I hear that programmers need to apply for EB-2, EB-3 and PERM? What are those? In fact, H, EB-2 and EB-3 are all technical personnel, but H is the non-immigrant visa version, and EB-2 or EB-3 is their immigrant visa version.
L is a multinational manager. This is also a work visa. A large Chinese company will send a senior executive to the United States to work for several years. At this point, some people are wondering, "Lawyer Liu, why did I hear that EB-1C is also a multinational manager?" Yes, both are multinational managers, but L is a non-immigrant visa, which means that with L, you will return home after work, while with EB-1C, you are aiming for a US green card. Then some people say, "Can't I just apply for EB-1C?" It's not that simple. We'll talk about it later.
O visa for outstanding talents, science or art, this is still a work visa. Same question, here some people are wondering, Lawyer Liu, I heard that EB-1A is also outstanding talents. Yes, both are outstanding talents, but L is a non-immigrant visa version, that is to say, OL, you go back after work, EB-1C is for the US green card. Some people say, I can just apply for EB-1AC, it's not that simple, we will talk about it later.
There are also P, R, T, K and so on, which are all for religions, athletes, cultural ambassadors and so on. They are quite far from our lives, so we won’t elaborate on them. It is enough for everyone to know that there are many types of non-immigrant visas.
3. Immigrant visa
Now let's quickly get into the immigrant visa category .
An immigrant visa can be understood as the waiting process before getting a green card. In other words, the biggest difference between an immigrant visa and a non-immigrant visa is that although an immigrant visa is closer to a green card, the immigrant visa itself gives the applicant only the right to wait.
You are wrong, Lawyer Liu. I know that so-and-so started a company in the United States and hired more than a dozen people during his EB-1C period. That’s because he also has an L-1
If you say someone is still working for a company in the U.S. during their EB-2 or EB-3 period, it’s because they still have an H-1B or O-1
We will have a more detailed explanation of the difference in the next issue. In this issue, we will focus on introducing various types of immigration visas.
According to the US immigration law, there are three types of US immigrant visas with quota restrictions : Family Based (FB), Employment Based (EB), and Diversity Visa (DV).
You said, "Lawyer Liu, that's not right. I heard there are refugees and so on. Why are they not included in your classification?" Pay attention to this place. I said that there are "quota-limited" immigrant visas, that is, quota immigrant visas. I will keep it a secret here because we will talk about immigrant visas without quotas later.
20 lectures on US visas, let your company easily set foot on the US map. I am American lawyer Lawyer Liu, see you next time.
