There are two types of visas under the US immigration system which permits the foreign nationals to come and work in the United States. These are known as the immigrant and the non-immigrant visa.

The non-immigrant visa permits foreign nationals to come and work in the US temporarily. The visa requirements for a tourist visa have been waived off for about 36 nations mainly from Europe. Although, most of the people who come to work in the US intend to immigrate permanently to the US.

There are 3 main ways of obtaining an immigrant visa for US: through a member of the family already settled in the US, employer sponsoring it, or through aiming at increasing the divergence in the US.

• Family sponsorsIt is easier for minor children as well as the spouses of the US citizens to obtain an immigrant visa. There is no limit on the total visa numbers to be given out each year. However, for those other than the immediate relatives of the US citizens who do not have a green card status, the number of immigrant Visa is 226,000 per year.Specific preference is given to selected relatives over others. These include those with children of US citizens who are not yet married. They top the list and uncles, aunts, and even parents are the bottom of the list.

  Unmarried children (adults) from most of the countries wait for almost 4 years for the visa and married children wait for not less than 8 years.

• Employer sponsorsWith the help of the sponsorship fro the US employers, 140,000 additional immigrants come to US each year. But there are 2 obstacles.
  1. It is mandatory for an applicant to have a job offer in the United States. However, if suspected of seeking a job post landing in the nation, the travel would not be granted.
  2. The employer should be ready to bear the expenses and time on the applicant in order to sponsor him.
• Diversity visas

Each year, around 50,000 visas are given out by US in order to diversify the country.

The visa could be applied by filling and filing through the online lottery system.

Most of the people coming from some of the most populated countries in the world do not qualify for the online lottery system. This is because there are already many immigrants residing in the US from these nations.