U.S. Citizenship For Dummies. Jennifer Gagliardi
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least one parent of the child is a citizen of the United States, either born or naturalized.
The child is under 18 years old.
The child is living in the United States in the legal and physical custody of the citizen parent after being admitted as a lawful permanent resident.
It’s important to realize that in order to qualify under the Child Citizenship Act, an applicant must have met all three of the preceding requirements on or after February 27, 2001. If an applicant meets all the requirements except that their 18th birthday fell before February 27, 2001, the applicant legally remains an alien until they can go through the normal naturalization process as outlined in this book.
Working for a Green Card
A second goal of the U.S. immigration system is to allow U.S. employers to hire citizens of other countries when no qualified U.S. citizens or legal residents can fill the positions. Each year, a minimum of 140,000 employment-based immigrant visas become available in five preference categories.
In most cases, you will need a solid offer of employment from a qualified employer who is willing and able to sponsor you for immigration. In addition to filing forms and guaranteeing employment, in many cases the employer should also be prepared to show evidence that no qualified U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents are available to fill the position.
After determining if you qualify for an employment-based visa, you and your employer will usually be required to obtain a labor certification from the U.S. Department of Labor (Form ETA 750), as well as file an Immigrant Petition for Foreign Worker (Form I-140) with the USCIS. As always, you’ll probably have to file other forms and paperwork — you can find more on this in Chapter 4.
Making sense of employment preference categories
Just as with family-based visas, U.S. immigration laws allow people to gain lawful permanent residence legally through several preference categories. See USCIS Green Card for Employment-Based Immigrants (www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-eligibility/green-card-for-employment-based-immigrants) or Employment-Based Immigrant Visas (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/employment-based-immigrant-visas.html).
First preference: Priority workers
Priority workers receive 28.6 percent of the yearly worldwide allotment of employment visas, plus any left over from the fourth and fifth preference categories. Within this preference category, you’ll find three subgroups. Although qualifying for a first preference visa is quite difficult, none of these categories requires labor certification, which saves processing time.
PEOPLE WITH EXTRAORDINARY ABILITY
If you can offer extensive documentation showing sustained national or international acclaim and recognition as a person of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, you won’t be required to have a specific job offer or a sponsoring employer to immigrate to the United States — provided you’re coming here to continue work in your established field. An employer can petition for you, however.
Keep in mind that the first priority classification is reserved for those with truly extraordinary achievement (for instance, Nobel Prize winners). If you haven’t yet won such a prestigious award, other documentation that can help you prove your case as a person of extraordinary ability includes
Receipt of nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards for excellence in your field
Membership in associations that demand outstanding achievement of their members
Published material about yourself in professional or major trade publications or other major media attention
Evidence that you have judged the work of others, individually or as a member of a professional panel
Evidence of contributions of major significance to your field
Evidence of authorship of scholarly articles in professional or major trade publications or other major media
Evidence that your work has been displayed at artistic, business, educational, scientific, or athletic exhibitions or showcases
Evidence that you perform a leading or critical role in distinguished professional organizations
Evidence that you command a high salary in relation to others in your field
Evidence of your commercial successes in your field
Other comparable evidence
OUTSTANDING PROFESSORS OR RESEARCHERS
No labor certification is required if you can prove to the satisfaction of the USCIS that you are an internationally recognized outstanding professor or researcher with at least three years’ experience in teaching or research. You must be entering the United States in a tenure or tenure-track teaching capacity or in a comparable research position at a university or other institution of higher learning. If your prospective employer is a private company rather than an educational institution, the department, division, or institute of the private employer must employ at least three persons full time in research activities and have achieved documented accomplishments in an academic field in order to sponsor you for immigration.
You cannot self-petition in this category (an employer must petition on your behalf). In order to qualify as an outstanding professor or researcher, you also need to be able to document at least two of the following:
Receipt of major prizes or awards for outstanding achievement
Membership in associations requiring their members to demonstrate outstanding achievements
Articles in professional publications written by others about your work in the academic field
Participation, on a panel or individually, as a judge of the work of others in the same or allied academic fields
Your original scientific or scholarly research contributions to your field
Authorship of books or articles in scholarly journals with international circulation
CERTAIN FOREIGN EXECUTIVES OR MANAGERS
If you’re a foreign executive or manager, and you were employed at least one of the three preceding years by the overseas affiliate, parent, subsidiary, or branch of a U.S. company, your U.S. employer can petition for you without having to file a labor certification application. Of course, you must be immigrating in order to continue work for that same company in a managerial or executive position.
Second preference: Professionals
Professionals holding advanced degrees, or persons of exceptional ability in the arts, sciences, or business, receive 28.6 percent of the yearly visa allotment, plus any leftover first preference employment visas. In most second preference category cases, you must have a firm offer of employment and your U.S. employer must file a USCIS petition on your behalf. In most cases, an employer must also obtain labor certification from the Department of Labor (DOL) before filing the petition.