Certain aliens who are members of the professions holding advanced graduate degrees from recognized colleges and universities (American and foreign) may be eligible for a permanent immigrant visa for themselves and their immediate family members.  Qualifying professionals include lawyers, doctors, dentists, engineers, academics, and many others. 

Every year, the United States allocates a certain number of permanent immigrant visas to aliens who are members of professions holding advanced degrees or their equivalent, known commonly as “Employment-Based Second Preference” or “EB-2” immigrants.  According to the latest U.S. Department of State Visa Bulletin, visas are currently available in this category for applicants from most countries (except mainland China and India). As such, if an individual is eligible for the visa and completes the application process, there is no “backlog” of visas requiring long waits for a visa to become available. 

To be eligible for classification as a professional alien holding an advanced degree, the alien must first be a member of a qualifying “profession,” defined by regulations to mean an occupation for which a U.S. baccalaureate degree—or its foreign equivalent—is the minimum requirement for entry in the field. 

Second, the alien engaged in that profession must in fact hold an “advanced degree.”  The regulations define “advanced degree” as any U.S. academic or professional degree (or a foreign equivalent) above a bachelor’s degree level.  An alien may also qualify with only a baccalaureate degree if the alien also has five years of progressive post-degree experience in the specialty field.  An applicant can thus satisfy the “advanced degree” requirement by showing either: (1) a U.S. master’s degree or higher (or a foreign degree found to be the equivalent of a U.S. master’s degree or higher); or, (2) a U.S. bachelor’s degree (or foreign degree equivalent) plus five years of progressive, post-degree work experience.  “Progressive” work experience, according to USCIS, includes “employment experience that reveals progress, moves forward, and advances toward increasingly complex or responsible duties… demonstrated by advancing levels of responsibility and knowledge in the specialty.”  However, if the given profession requires its members to hold a Ph.D., the applicant must in fact hold a Ph.D. or a foreign equivalent—work experience will not suffice. 

Generally, an applicant for an EB-2 visa must first obtain a labor certification and a job offer in the profession.  However, the applicant may seek a waiver of this requirement if the admission of the alien is in the “national interest.”  This “National Interest” Waiver may be useful to an alien that does not have a pending job offer in his or her “advanced degree” profession.  Although “national interest” is not defined by law, USCIS generally requires the waiver applicant to show: (1) that he or she seeks to work in an area of “substantial intrinsic merit;” (2) that the applicant will provide a benefit that is national in scope; and, (3) that the benefit derived by the applicant’s participation in the “national interest” endeavor will “considerably” outweigh the “inherent” national interest in protecting U.S. workers through the labor certification process. 

An application for an EB-2 visa must be expertly documented and prepared with care.  A petition must be accompanied by proof that the applicant has an advanced degree from a U.S. university or a foreign equivalent degree, or an official academic record showing that the alien has a U.S. bachelor’s degree (or foreign equivalent) and letters and statements from current and past employers showing that the applicant has at least five years of progressive post-baccalaureate experience in the specialty.  The petition must also be accompanied by a labor certification (or evidence of eligibility for precertification under Department of Labor rules), or, in the alternative, a well-documented request for a “National Interest” Waiver of the labor certification requirement. 

Individuals qualifying for an EB-2 visa or Green Card may be entitled to permanent residency in the United States, and possible Naturalization after five years as a resident.