This guest blog is by Reinhard von Hennigs with BridgehouseLaw.

Every foreign owned subsidiary planning on sending their technology specialists or other relevant team members to the United States will face immigration questions sooner than later. The US immigration law differentiates between immigrant and non-immigrant visas. The most prominent immigrant visa is the so-called Green Card.

From the non-immigrant visa point of view, the most utilized visa – from our experience – is the investor visa, as this helps the foreign entity to enter the US market and to designate a few key employees to work in the States. For more details, please see the summary.

E visas are for companies needing a short- or long-term supervisor, investor, or essential employee in the U.S.

L visas are for companies with at least one entity abroad and one in the U.S. L visas allow companies to transfer employees in the short-term.

H1-B visas are for companies needing specialized employees in the short term. They are capped at 65,000 persons with bachelor’s degrees and 20,000 with U.S. master’s degrees.

PERMs are for companies needing employees to reside in the U.S. permanently. The PERM process is needed to file for both EB-2 and EB-3 employment-based green cards.

EB-2 visas are for workers with an advanced degree (e.g. MA) or those who demonstrate exceptional ability. EB-3 visas are for skilled workers with at least 2 years’ experience, professional workers with a bachelor’s degree or foreign equivalent, or unskilled workers.