Work visa process

Work visa process

Depending on the type of work to be done, there are several types of Visa, that allow you to work legally in the United States. For each of the different types of work Visa, it is necessary to meet different requirements, both for the employer and for the worker.

In order to start the Visa process, the most important and necessary requirement for all types of work Visa is to have an Employer in the United States, who offers you a permanent or temporary employment contract.

It is necessary that your Employer is a company duly registered in the United States, for example, if you work for a Mexican company that has branches or subsidiaries in the United States, it is possible that your Employer in Mexico can process the work visa and transfer you to you at one of those branches in the United States.

On the other hand, it is also possible to process the visa, if you work for a Mexican company that has business relationships with clients in the United States and your employer needs to send workers to perform some type of specialized service for clients or third-party companies.

In any of the above cases, your Employer may start the American work Visa process.

Once the worker has an Employer or job offer, the next step is to verify that the work activities to be carried out comply with the guidelines set for the Work Visa requested. For example, in case that a Mexican company wants to send one of its workers to the United States, but the worker does not meet the requirements established by the immigration law in the TN Visa form (for "Trade NAFTA" the North American Free Trade Agreement), it will NOT be possible to process the Work Visa. That is why it is extremely important to first verify the requirements of each type of work visa for both, the company and the worker,

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PROCEDURES

The work Visa can be processed online through Form I-129 when the candidate is outside or within the United States (although the candidate had to legally enter the United States and only their immigration status will be adjusted) or physically through the nearest American Consulate.

It is important to mention that once the I-129 form is approved, the majority of the candidates must go to the corresponding American Consulate to continue processing the Work Visa.

In this informative article, we explain how to carry out the procedure through the I-129 form “Petition for a Non-Immigrant Worker” when the applicant or candidate is in Mexico, and the process can be carried out directly at the American Consulate without having to enter the form I-129 through USCIS.

Form I-129 for the “Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker” (when the candidate is outside the United States)

Form I-129 is the base form for the vast majority of Work Visas. With this form, the employer in the United States initiates the process through the USCIS department, selects the type of Non-Immigrant Work Visa that will be applying to its candidates since the I-129 form allows on certain occasions to request more than one worker in a single I-129 form.

Important note: You must verify the entire completed form directly on the USCIS website, including the instructions for the form, as all work visas have different instructions, and requirements. Therefore, you must make sure that your I-129 form complies with all the requirements established by the immigration law in the United States, for the work Visa process you are requesting.

Once the I-129 form is approved, the Employer will receive the approval notification, which must be sent to the workers, so they may start now their part of the process at the corresponding Consulate in Mexico and thus conclude the work visa process.

To start his process in Mexico, the worker must complete the DS-160 form (to apply for a non-immigrant Visa) and mark the type of Work Visa previously approved through the I-129 form. Once the DS-160 form is complete, reviewed, and sent, the worker must schedule appointments for fingerprinting and photographs and their interview at the corresponding American Consulate (it is necessary to verify the Consulate assigned their interview).

To the interview, the worker candidate must bring the approval notification of the I-129 form (Notice of Approval) previously submitted to USCIS, the Mexican passport, the confirmation of his DS-160 form. Also, remember that when applying for a non-immigrant visa, you must bring all the documents that you consider necessary to demonstrate your roots in Mexico during the interview at the Consulate.

Once the non-immigrant Visa is approved, the American Consulate will temporarily keep the worker's Mexican passport, as the Work Visa will be "attached" to that passport. Until the passport is returned with the work visa attached, then the worker can enter the United States and work legally.

It is important to verify that all the information on the Visa is correct, the general information such as your full name and date of birth, the date of issue and expiration of the Work Visa, etc.

TN type work visa (for candidates outside the United States)

The TN type work Visa is one of the only Visas for which it is NOT necessary to enter any form before USCIS.

1. Some important requirements are:
2. 1.- That the candidate already has a job offer in the United States.
3. 2.- That the candidate complies with the requirements established in the immigration laws and the free trade agreement (NAFTA).

To talk a little bit more about these requirements, be sure that the job offer that the applicant has, complies with the guidelines established by the NAFTA free trade agreement. The TN-type work visa will be rejected if the job offer does not meet the guidelines.

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One of the top requirements to process the TN type work visa is that the candidate or applicant has a higher education than high school and has documents to prove it. To apply for a TN type Work Visa, it is necessary to show the university degree and professional identification of one of the professions allowed by NAFTA. In some cases, it is possible that the NAFTA guidelines, in addition to requiring a university degree and professional license, also require years of experience working in your specialty.

Important note: Each process doesn't need to present a new employer or job offer in the United States. For the type of TN work visa, the candidate may be repeatedly sent to the United States as a professional to offer a specialized service to a company in the United States. It is important to note that it is necessary to establish the type of business relationship between the company in Mexico and the Company in the United States.

Once the "job offer" document is well prepared, following the guidelines established by the migration law and the NAFTA free trade agreement, the candidate must fill out his DS-160 form online to process the Visa for TN type work for nonimmigrants.

Afterward, the candidate must schedule appointments for fingerprinting and photography and the interview at the Consulate. Part of the documents required to present is the "job offer", the university degree, the professional license, the notification of confirmation of the DS-160 form, and may also be present additional documents that it deems necessary to support the approval of the visa application.

When someone hires MEXUS Immigration Services to process the TN Work Visa, we always carefully verify that all the requirements of migration laws and the NAFTA free trade agreement are covered. Our main task is to reassure that the candidate and the Employer's company meet all the requirements, establishing this in the "job offer" document.

On certain occasions, we even prepare a "legal brief" that details all the covered requirements and the different admissibility factors, according to the immigration laws, to support the viability of the Visa application of our client.

All the studies, documents, or legal Briefs to process the Work Visa, are prepared by our American Lawyer within MEXUS. If you are interested in learning more about the services offered by our American Attorney, please visit the following link Meet Our Attorney.

To process the work Visa, Mexus Immigration Services will help you, from a single consultation appointment in-person or phone call to total support during each step of the process until obtaining the work visa.

Our American Immigration Lawyer prepares the "Legal Brief" and all documents needed, checks up that all immigration laws and NAFTA regulations are covered, and to present the I-129 Form, we also add Form G-28 (Notice of Entry of Appearance as Attorney or Accredited Representative).

This section and all its content are for informational purposes only. It is a guide to introduce you to key aspects of the work visa process. With the information in this section, you will find out if you qualify to receive a Work Visa. Contact us to receive more information or to hire our professional consulting services.

We recommend that you also visit the official sites of the American Embassy and Consulate and the USCIS site.