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Archives: May 2014

Visas for Outstanding Researchers and Professors: A US Manpower Zap

In reaction to a legitimate employment need in 1992, the United States congress created an immigrant visa that allowed professors and researchers from foreign countries to enter the United States under a Green Card to work and permanently reside in the country.  The visa is one of the three subcategories under what the The United States Citizen Citizenship and Immigration Sevices (USCIS), the agency empowered with administering the visa program,  has generally referred to as the EB-1 visa category.  EB-1 stands for the first category of employment based immigrant visas.

Oustanding Researcher and Professor 5

The foreign professor or researcher cannot by himself apply for the visa.  Rather, he has to be employed first by an educational instiution or research company, which then files an application with the USCIS for the visa for him.

To qualify for the visa, the alien professor or researcher must have an internationally recognized outstanding background in a specific academic field, such as Law, Science, and Engineering.  She must also have at least three years teaching or research experience in the field.  Her experience amount can be tolled from the time she became a professor or researcher.  But it can also be tolled from the time she was working towards the degree and the experience was outstanding and she had a full responsibility of  classes taught or researches that she conducted.

Outstanding Professor or Researcher 1

The professor or researcher is deemed to have an internationally recognized outstanding background if she has at least two of the following criteria:

a.  Receipt of major prizes or awards;

b.  Membership in associations that require outstanding achievements;

c.  Published material in professional journals written by others about the alien’s work;

d.  Participation as a judge of the work of others in the same or allied field;

e.  Original scientific or scholarly research contribution to the field; or

f.  Authorship of scholarly books or articles in scholarly journals with international circulation.

The research or teaching postion must be permanent.  A permanent position is defined as one with indefinite duration, but terminable at will for good cause in which the employee has a reasonable expectation of continued employment.  Even if the employment is periodic, it may be considered permanent if the employer demonstrates a reasonable expectation of continued employment.  An example is where the employer hires a reasercher under a one year conract that is renewable upon the availability of funding, and the employer shows that there is continued funding.

Outstanding Researcher and Professor 3

The alien must enter the United States, upon an offer of employment, to work in a tenure or tenure-track teaching or comparable research position in a university or institution of higher education or a comparable private research company.  For the research company to participate in the visa program, it must have at least three full-time researchers and documented accomplishments in the academic field for which the position is offered.

The employer files the application together with supporting evidence on a Form I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker with USCIS. After the USCIS approves the application, the alien can then apply for a Green Card on a Form I-485 Application to Register as Permanent Resident.

Outstanding Researcher or Professor (2)

If you are a University, an institution of higher education, private research company or a professor or researcher that is in need of assistance with your employment based Green Card application, please contact our office to work with our employment based Green Card team.

Get a Green Card in the United States for you and your Family and Increase your Wealth

Investor 1

You can get a Green Card to live and work in the United States and also increase your wealth through an investment immigrant visa.  This visa opportunity, also known as EB-5, was created by Congress in 1990 though an immigration ACT.  Among others, the ACT gave the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) the power to administer the visa program.

Current statistics show that foreign investors from China are among the leading users of this visa program.  But investors from many parts of the world, including Nigeria, use it as well.

The visa allows investors from foreign countries to immigrate to and invest financial resources in viable investment platforms in the United States.

Investor 3

Under the law, a foreign investor can invest at least $500,000 into the United States economy, and because of the investment, come to the United States under a permanent resident immigrant visa.  This means that the foreign investor can dump their financial resources into areas of the US economy, gain profits on the investment, if the investment does well, and get a visa that permits him and his spouse and children under 21 years old to reside, work, go to school, and live a happy life in the country.

Investor 2

The investment process can be direct or it can be through USCIS authorized regional centers.  Under the direct investment approach, the investor must invest at least $1million and create at least ten full-time jobs for United States workers.  The investment amount can be $500,000 if it is invested in a high unemployment or rural area of the United States.

The investment can also be through a regional center.  Regional Centers are commercial entities that the USCIS has authorized to accept and manage EB-5 related investment funds.  The centers accept foreign investor funds and manage them in ways that meet USCIS investor visa requirements.  Simply explained, they make sure that the job creation and other requirements of the investor visa are met to enable the investor and his family get the immigrant visa.

Under  the investor visa law, it is critically important that the source of the investor funds are investigated to find that they are clean and legally acquired.

The foreign investor visa gives the holder enviable immigration opportunities, such as travel in and out of the United States and reside in any part of the country.  At the application phase, the foreign investor can also elect to be in or outside the United States while the visa is processed.  If he choses to be in the country, he can travel in and out of the country under a government approved travel document.

Investor 4

Once the investor requirements are met, the foreign investor and his spouse and children under 21 can then apply for the immigrant visa on a Form I-526 together with all other evidence supporting his eligibility for the visa.  If the USCIS is satisfied that all the visa conditions are met, it will grant the investor and his family a conditional Green Card for two years.  After the two years, the investor is again required to file another petition to remove the condition.  The petition is filed in the 90 days preceding the second anniversary of the conditional permanent resident visa grant.  In this petition, the investor must prove that the business was created in the requisite  investment amount and  number of jobs.  Once all the requirements are met, the USCIS removes the condition from the Green Card, and the investor and his family can reside, work, travel and live happily in the United States indefinitely.  Best of all, after five years of the immigrant visa grant the investor and his family, if they choose to, can apply for US citizenship.  The investor can also, at the end of five years from the date of his investment, remove his investment with all the dividends if the investment had yielded dividends.

The Swaray Law Office investment team can help you assess your eligibility for the visa, identify investment areas, investment commercial enterprises and process your immigrant visa application.  This means that all you do is cooperate with the team in providing the requisite information needed to process your investor application and fund.  If you are interested in an investor visa, and want to work with Swaray Law Office, contact us today by phone or fill out our contact message form at this website and send it to us.

Bi-Annual Brazilian Consulate Event

Brazilian elections

Image of attendees at a Brazilian Consulate.

Swaray Law Office is excited to participate in the bi-annual Brazilian Consulate event that will be held at United Methodist Church in Bloomington. The event will take place this Saturday, May 24, 2014 from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM.

The purpose of the event is to give an opportunity for the members of the Brazilian Community here in Minnesota a chance to meet with the Brazilian consulate and address issues with birth certificates, passports and other immigration related paper work. As the members of the community wait to be attended to, they would have the opportunity to stop at different tables that are set up in the room and get information about the different services that the different companies provide.

Our office will be one of the several companies in attendance and we will have a platform to address the legal questions that the community members might have but haven’t had the opportunity to discuss. Not only will we be helping others find solutions to their legal problems, we will also have the chance to build trusting relationships with the community members and get exposure.

You are all invited to attend.