What are the various employment-based visas?

There is a variety of employment-based visas available for American companies trying to bring foreign workers into the United States to work or for foreign companies looking to set up subsidiaries in the United States and bring in some of their top-level executives into the United States. Those visa categories include the H, the L and the E. Those are the three most prominently used visas for persons trying to do business in the United States. H visas are for skilled and semiskilled employees. Those require a two-step process, including usually the labor certification, which is the first step toward being able to bring the person into the United States and establishing that the American employer cannot find comparably qualified employees in the United States. L visas are for foreign companies who have set up American subsidiaries and are trying to bring some of their high-level personnel into the United States. The most common scenario is a foreign company that’s doing a joint venture with an American company and they want to bring in their vice president of operations and some of their higher-end engineers and higher-level executives in the United States. Those visas are available for four to six years. E visas are visas for investors who are interested in opening a company in the United States and want to bring in their operation into the United States. There are visas available for those type of people that can allow them to — for them to come in, but in some cases their family members and a lot of their higher-end executives as well. All three of these visas are a very complicated process but can be — if done properly can open the door for American companies in need of skilled and specialized labor.