USA Immigration

Main visa routes

• H-1B specialty occupation — 65,000 regular cap plus 20,000 U.S. Master's quota; registration lottery each March, employment starts October 1.
• L-1A and L-1B intracompany transfer — for executives/managers (up to 7 years) and specialised-knowledge employees (up to 5 years) after one year abroad with the same group.
• O-1 extraordinary ability — for individuals with sustained national or international acclaim in sciences, arts, business, or athletics.
• Employment-based green cards — EB-1 (priority workers A/B/C), EB-2 (advanced degree, with NIW route allowing self-petition), EB-3 (skilled workers, both via PERM), EB-4 (special workers), EB-5 (investor — $800,000 in a targeted employment area or $1.05M elsewhere).
• Family-based — IR categories for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens (uncapped) and F1–F4 preference categories (annual caps with country limits).

Who can apply / Key requirements

• Employer sponsor — required for H-1B, L-1, and most EB-2/EB-3 filings; EB-1A, EB-2 NIW, and EB-5 allow self-petition.
• Qualifications — bachelor's-equivalent for H-1B in a specialty occupation; advanced degree or exceptional ability for EB-2; at least 2 years' experience or training for EB-3.
• PERM labour certification — Department of Labor process testing the U.S. job market before most EB-2/EB-3 petitions can be filed.
• Indian-born backlog — current EB-2 and EB-3 final-action dates for India sit roughly a decade behind filing dates per the monthly USCIS visa bulletin.
• Not available to Indians — E-2 (treaty investor — India is not a treaty country), E-3 (Australians only), TN (Canada/Mexico only), Diversity Visa Lottery.

How we support you

• Route mapping across non-immigrant, immigrant, and family options.
• H-1B registration, lottery strategy, and cap-exempt employer search.
• PERM coordination with U.S. counsel and I-140 / I-485 / I-130 / N-400 preparation.
• Premium Processing decisions and consular processing vs Adjustment of Status planning.
• Dependant filings (H-4, L-2, derivative EB) and EAD tracking.

Eligibility & process

A typical Indian-born professional pathway runs F-1 student to OPT to H-1B (lottery-dependent) to EB-2 / EB-3 with PERM to green card to citizenship — usually 10–15+ years end to end because of the per-country green card cap.

• Non-immigrant filing — I-129 petition for H-1B / L-1 / O-1, then consular visa stamping at a U.S. embassy in India or change of status from inside the U.S.
• PERM — recruitment campaign and prevailing-wage determination through the Department of Labor before the immigrant petition.
• I-140 immigrant petition — filed with USCIS; locks in the priority date that controls the visa bulletin queue.
• I-485 Adjustment of Status (filed inside the U.S. when the priority date is current) or consular processing at the U.S. consulate.
• Naturalisation (N-400) — eligible 5 years after green card (3 years if married to and living with a U.S. citizen), with a civics and English test.

Process & timeline

• March — H-1B electronic registration window; lottery selections issued late March.
• April to June — I-129 petition filing for selected registrations; Premium Processing 15 business days for $2,805.
• October 1 — earliest H-1B start date for cap-subject employees.
• PERM to I-140 — typically 8–18 months including recruitment and DOL processing.
• Priority date wait — India EB-2 / EB-3 currently a decade-plus per the monthly visa bulletin.