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  • Hi, my name is Michael Niren. I'm an immigration lawyer and founder of

  • VisaPlace.com. We got a question today about, "What are my options for

  • getting a work visa to the US?" Well, there are a number of options that are

  • available, depending upon your situation. A popular option would be a H1B

  • visa. An H1B visa is for people who have what is called specialty occupations,

  • usually require a college or university degree and have a job offer in

  • the United States that is consistent with your education.

  • The thing with H1Bs is that every year, there is an annual cap of H1Bs and

  • you can apply in April 1st of a given year and there's a mad rush for

  • application. So if you qualify for an H1B or you want to apply for an H1B

  • or you want to apply for an H1B, you better do it right on the mark on

  • April 1st because if you wait too longer, there's a possibility that there

  • won't be any H1Bs available. Another popular option for Canadians is a

  • TN visa. Again, it's usually for individuals who have a college or university

  • degree. But not necessarily. There are some occupations that don't require

  • that. The trick for a TN visa is that you have to have an occupation on

  • a list of occupations at the appendix of the NAFTA agreement. It's a pretty

  • short list. So you have to have that kind of occupation. Also, you need

  • a job offer. A TN visa is very advantageous because you can get it very quickly.

  • There are no caps. You can apply for the visa right at the border,

  • the Canada/US border, which is a great and quick way of getting a visa.

  • Other options would be what we call the L visa or L1 visa and that is

  • really for people who are being transferred from a foreign company to an

  • American company, in most cases. So you work for the foreign company for at

  • least one year and, typically, you should be either an executive, a manger

  • or person of specialized knowledge where you would then be transferred to

  • the US company. So that's an option, too. So those are what I would consider the main

  • options. There is also the investor visa as well, E-visas. Where you

  • could invest in a business or start a business in the US and get a visa

  • that way. So that's a very high-level general overview

  • of what is available. There are of course other visas, but those are the most

  • common; at least the ones that we see in terms of applying for a US

  • visa.

Hi, my name is Michael Niren. I'm an immigration lawyer and founder of

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