Visa low down — the alphabet soup explained

Immigration laws are an alphabet soup of visas from the A-1 for diplomatic personnel, including your every day ambassador, all the way to the proposal in Senate Bill 1348 this year to create a new class of Z visa as a solution to address the problem of the estimated 12 million illegal aliens now living and working in the U.S.

I had a talk with Bob Meltzer, CEO of VisaNow in order to see if we could sort out what each type of visa is used for, mainly in high tech.

VisaNow, for your information, is an online-only immigration application service provider.

The main goal of any company that wants to bring in foreign workers is to figure out which visa makes the best fit.

For example, Meltzer tells me if a non-U.S. based company wants to bring in someone to the States from an overseas branch the best fit is the L category.

L visas are for employees of non-U.S. firms who are brought over to work in an executive or managerial position.

If you have a Canadian or Mexican employee that you would like to bring to the States common wisdom might assume that the TN visa is the right one to apply for.

TN visas are exclusively for Canadian and Mexican professionals.

However, there is a one-year time limit and if the project is big you might want to take your chances with an H-1B instead which has a three year expiry and can be renewed.

Also, Meltzer says, moving to the Green Card is easier with the H-1B than with the TN.

“H-1Bs and Ls are the only categories that allow you to bring workers in on a temporary basis with the intention of remaining here permanently.”

In all other categories you cannot have the intention of permanent residence. For example, you can’t file for a TN visa and a Green Card at the same time.

Another category no one talks about much are the E and the O visas.

The E visa was instituted way back for people that came from a country with a so-called FCN [Friendship, Commerce, Navigation] treaty with the U.S.

Now the WTO [World Trade Organization] is where all the FCNs were placed in.

Employers can use this E-2 category to bring employees in “for those who have invested a substantial amount of capital to develop and direct the operation of an enterprise in the U.S. by way of opening up a branch in another FCN country or if they are planning to invest in that country.”

E-3 is a weird one. It is only for admission of temporary workers from Australia to perform services in a “specialty” occupation.

The O category is also for exceptional workers in business or science.

This one is sometimes used when H-1Bs aren’t approved.

It is a tough category says Meltzer because you have to prove someone is outstanding and it is really targeted at the CEO or CIO level, says Meltzer.

Well, that’s the visa soup. I hope it took you from a murky bisque to a clear consume.