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Are you an Australian Citizen? Try the E-3
Posted on September 23, 2013 by Brian D. Lerner, Immigration Lawyer & Deportation Attorney
Are there any work visas from Australia?
Posted on September 23, 2013 by Brian D. Lerner, Immigration Lawyer & Deportation Attorney
Are there any special visas from Australia?
Question: I’m an Australian Citizen. Are there any special visas from Australia that I might be able to qualify for as an Australian Citizen?
Answer: Yes. The E-3 nonimmigrant classification is for Australian citizens who will perform professional “specialty occupation” assignments in the United States. E-3 status may be valid for up to two years and may be renewed indefinitely. The foreign national may apply for an E-3 visa at a U.S. consulate abroad or request a change of status or change of employer from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Dependent spouses and children of E-3 professionals hold E-3D status. E-3D spouses are eligible for employment authorization documents. An extension of E-3 status may be filed with USCIS, or the foreign national may apply for a new period of E-3 status at a U.S. consulate abroad. There is an ample annual numerical limitation of 10,500 E-3 visa numbers, and E-3 extensions and E-3D dependents are not counted towards the quota. The E-3 is actually similar to the H-1B, but is for people only from Australia.
Question: What is basically needed for this type of visa?
Answer: You must be a citizen or national of Australia. There must be a professional assignment in the United States. You need a Bachelor’s degree. You need a professional license, if required for the assignment by federal, state, or local law.
Question: What documents basically are needed?
Answer: The U.S. job description. Copies of the foreign national’s educational degrees, including transcripts. Copies of the foreign national’s professional licenses, if applicable. Foreign national’s experience letters, if applicable. A Copy of foreign national’s résumé. Basic information about the company. A Copy of biographic page(s) of passport(s) of the foreign national and any dependent spouse and children.
Question: Is there a numerical limitation on E-3 Visas?
Answer: There is a numerical limitation of 10,500 E-3 visas that may be issued annually, but “[o]nly E-3 principals who are initially being issued E-3 visas, or who are otherwise initially obtaining E-3 status,” are counted towards this cap. Neither Australian citizens who seek E-3 extensions with the same employer nor E-3D dependents are subject to the quota. Unused E-3 visa numbers “do not carry over to the next fiscal year.” The Department of State (DOS) tracks usage of the visa numbers used by the U.S. consulates and by USCIS, so if it appears that the quota will be exhausted, DOS “will instruct posts to cease E-3 issuances for that fiscal year.” It seems unlikely, however, that the cap will be reached.
Question: If I do not have a Bachelor’s Degree, can I still get the H-1B?
Answer: Generally you cannot. However, you can try to get the equivalent of the Bachelor’s Degree. There are different ways that you can try to do this. They are as follows: 1) “An evaluation” from a specific type of educational official; 2) A credentials evaluation of education prepared “by a reliable credentials evaluation service which specializes in evaluating foreign educational credentials”; 3) “The results of recognized college-level equivalency examinations or special credit programs, such as the College Level Examination Program (CLEP), or Program on Noncollegiate Sponsored Instruction (PONSI).” 4) Recognition from a professional association; or 5) USCIS determination.
However, keep in mind that even if you successfully show that you have a college degree equivalence, the position itself in the United States must require the use of that college degree.
Immigration Work visa Lawyer: finding a good Lawyer
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How does Retrogression works?
Posted on March 17, 2010 by Brian D. Lerner, Immigration Lawyer & Deportation Attorney
Cut-off date movement in most categories continues to be greater than might ordinarily be expected, and this is anticipated to continue for at least the next few months. This is because fewer applicants are proceeding with final action on their cases at consular posts abroad, and the volume of CIS adjustment cases remains low. Once large numbers of applicants begin to have their cases brought to final action, cut-off date movements will necessarily slow or stop. Moreover, in some categories cut-off date retrogression is a possibility. Therefore, readers should be
aware that the recent rate of cut-off date advances will not continue indefinitely, but it is not possible to say at present how soon they will end.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) processing during the past few years created a significant backlog of cases and a consequent reduction in demand for numbers. This was one of the primary reasons the employment-based categories remained current while tens of thousands of applicants became eligible to file for adjustment of status. In the summer of 2004, USCIS notified Congress of its intent to eliminate its backlogs by the end of FY2006. This backlog reduction effort resulted in heavy visa demand in the employment-based categories,10 and as a result, we once again faced backlogs. More recently, things took an “interesting” twist when after certain backlogged categories became current in July, DOS announced that all employment-based preference categories were “unavailable” for that month.11 In the February 2008 Visa Bulletin, DOS then announced that despite two retrogressions of the India EB-2 category, demand for numbers by USCIS offices for adjustment of status had remained extremely high and as a result, the annual limit for this category had been reached.12 In March 2008, DOS then advanced some of the employment based immigrant categories, indicating that this was done to avoid a situation later in the fiscal year. However, when you are looking at the monthly visa chart, be sure to take into account that it is possible that there will be visa retrogression and you may have to wait longer.
Specialty occupation work visa
Filed under: Work Visa | Tagged: Employment-Based Categories, Immigration Attorney, Work Permit, work petition, Work Visa, work visa attorney, work visa australia, work visa cap, work visa lawyer | Leave a comment »
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