San Diego Immigration Lawyers

Work Visas

Work visas are given on a temporary basis. These visas are intended for individuals who would like to come to the United States for employment that is contracted for a specific period of time, and not for an indefinite duration. Each of these visas requires that a prospective employer file a petition with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), followed by the application for a work visa by the beneficiary. By contrast, the American employer sponsoring the beneficiary to work in the United States is asked to provide information regarding their company, its demographic, as well as the beneficiary’s detailed work experience and skill set to demonstrate that the foreign national is qualified for the sought-after position.

Tourist Visas

Tourist visas are also known as visitor visas. San Diego immigration lawyer Jacob Sapochnick and his team also call this a visitor visa. These types of visas are nonimmigrant visas for individuals who wish to gain access to the United States on a temporary basis for the purpose of tourism, business, visiting, or a combination of the aforementioned purposes. This is one of the most popular visas as it is essentially for those who wish to visit the US without a plan of remaining in the country for employment purposes.

Permanent Residency / Green Card

Permanent residency, also known as a Green Card, allows you to enter the United States and remain here permanently. There are generally two ways a foreign national can attain permanent residency: (a) either through a qualifying family relationship, in which case the qualifying family member (typically a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident) files an immigrant petition on behalf of the foreign national, or (b) through employment sponsorship. In the second case, the foreign national can attain permanent residency based on their employment with a United States company. In this type of situation, the sponsoring U.S. company/employer would file an immigrant petition on behalf of the foreign national. In addition, a foreign national who can demonstrate their extraordinary ability in the arts and sciences and show their contribution to the nation, can apply for permanent residency. There are also other special categories of immigrants that can apply for permanent residency such as battered spouses, asylees, refugees, individuals eligible for 245i, etc. Once you have resided in the United States for a certain period of time (three to five years, depending on your immigrant classification), you may be eligible to apply for naturalization/citizenship.

Family Visas

As an immigration attorney serving San Diego, Jacob and his team receive many inquiries from individuals seeking a family visa. There are two types of family visas that are available, depending on your situation. The first would be an unlimited immediate family immigrant visa which is immediately available to the beneficiary and is thus not subject to numerical limitations, while the other would be a limited family preference immigrant visa, which is not immediately available and is thus subject to numerical limitations. The difference depends on your relationship to the petitioning relative (the American citizen or legal permanent resident currently in the United States). Foreign nationals who are eligible for an immediate family immigrant visa include: spouses, unmarried children under the age of 21, and parents of American citizens over the age of 21. The limited family preference immigrant visa categories consist of brothers and sisters of American citizens, and other, more distant, familial relationships.

The only way to obtain one of these visas would be to have a qualifying relative in the country who is a United States citizen or legal permanent resident (a family member in the United States who is here on a visa will not be considered).

Citizenship

Citizenship is granted to those who were born on United States soil, were born to American-born parents overseas, or those who have gone through the process of naturalization. San Diego immigration attorney Jacob Sapochnick and his team can help you pursue citizenship.

Naturalization is the end result of a permanent visa/Green Card. After a certain number of years (depending on the visa) the individual can go through the process of naturalization where he or she would become a United States citizen.

Start Up Immigration

This section is intended for entrepreneurs. There are five types of visas that an entrepreneur can apply for, depending on his or her position including the: H-1B, L-1, E-2, O-1, and B-1. What all of the visas have in common is that they require the applicant to have been a vital part of starting an organization or assisting in that organization’s growth. There is no specific start up visa at this time.

In addition to entrepreneurs, those individuals who are extraordinary in their field and can prove that they are an expert in their industry may apply for an O-1 visa, that would allow them to work in the United States for a certain period of time, much like a work visa, without sponsorship.

The entire Sapochnick Law team in San Diego, including experienced immigration lawyer Jacob Sapochnick, take their clients through the entire immigration process, from start to finish. We are confident in our abilities to handle all immigration matters and pride ourselves in being one of the top immigration law firms in San Diego. We take our clients and their life stories very seriously and will do everything in our power to make certain that their immigration dreams come true.