We have posted on multiple occasions about the difficulties that high-skilled workers that are hoping to work in the U.S. face in securing citizenship. The most common visa granted for a worker is the EB-3 visa. However, there are different visas available for a variety of professionals looking to live and work in the United States, but it can be a challenging and complex process.
There is another type of visa, called the EB-1, which is reserved for those individuals proven to have “extraordinary ability.” Embarking on the journey to secure such a visa would be extremely difficult without the close assistance of a highly skilled and experienced immigration attorney. Even still, current U.S. visa laws make securing any visa difficult.
For example, two postdoctoral students at MIT have invented a water-decontamination technology that could completely change the manner in which oil and natural gas are extracted by making the process cleaner. The duo is looking at millions in financing and hoping to start a company that could mean hiring 100 employees in the United States.
But, these students’ visas are set to expire this summer. They are from India and they could have to bring their company and the opportunities it presents to another country if they are made to leave the U.S. A director from MIT says of similar situations, “We train these people and then we push them away, while Chile and the U.K. and Canada are coming in to recruit them.”
Failing to assist talented minds in securing the right to live and work in the United States is not denying just the individual looking to immigrate opportunity, but could be robbing the collective U.S. of opportunity as well.
Source: The Washington Post, “Other countries court skilled immigrants frustrated by U.S. visa laws,” Kevin Sullivan, Feb. 18, 2013
- Our firm has experience assisting professionals in pursuit of various visas in the Washington D.C. area. For more information, please refer to our employment-based immigration page.