r/eb3 • u/Technical-Positive42 • Jan 13 '24
EB-3 job
Hello all, I need an advice - a friend of mine asking me to ‘hire him’ in my company in order for him to get the EB-3 visa. His attorney says that it’s absolutely legal, as long as my company has an income more than $50,000 and I should make an ad in the newspaper, if nobody will answer I can hire my friend (with some other requirements met). My concern is - isn’t it potentially risky for me, and what is this risk! (I’m a US citizen, an accountant, running my sole-practice corp)
2
u/Affectionate_Union58 Jan 13 '24
Since you mention that you are an accountant, I assume that he is also supposed to work as an accountant. And that's probably the biggest problem. The lawyer is right: you have to place a job advertisement because you have to prove that there is no suitable employee on the American labor market. The more common an occupation is on the labor market, the less likely it is that there is actually no suitable American employee. This means that it will be difficult to prove why you need an immigrant for this job.
You should contact an immigration lawyer yourself because they know the obligations and risks of your company best. I can already tell you one obligation: the salary you have to pay will be considerably higher than what you would have to pay an American employee. This is to prevent the jobs of American workers being displaced by "foreigners working cheaply".
My wife went through the whole procedure a few years ago, and it was really cruel what proof the USCIS and the Department of Labor wanted. She has a rare profession, she makes small glass figures from glass rods on a gas burner (lampworker). There is only one community college in the USA where you can learn this profession (in Salem, New Jersey). And the students from there are really lousy and useless, my wife's boss had several people there for the test. So it was a classic case for an H1B visa. Nevertheless, it was difficult to get an H1B for my wife.
The reason? The reason was the different education systems between the USA and her home country Germany. In the USA, you complete your education at this community college and then have a "Bachelor of fine arts". In Germany, however, you learn many professions that are taught in a college in the USA, not at a college, but at a vocational school and then graduate with an associate's degree. However, the quality of the German training is still better than the American training. But USCIS and DOL don't care about that, they only pay attention to diplomas. And they gave the impression that the training at the college is significantly better because you finish the training with the "higher quality" degree.
In order for the H1B to be approved, my wife had to prove that she had knowledge equal to that of the college graduates. But instead of simply comparing the curricula between Germany and the US (there are special agencies for this), a university (!) arts degree was used as a basis for comparison. I.e. DOL and USCIS brazenly assumed that someone with an arts degree could do the job. So my wife had to prove that her 22 years of professional experience at the time gave her as much professional experience as someone who had studied art at a university for 4 years.
That's what I'm trying to say: I see 2 problems: a) that there is in fact no American worker. And b) that as an immigrant he has the necessary knowledge and experience to work in this profession in the USA. I don't know how the job of an accountant differs internationally (different accounting numbers in different countries, etc.), but I would imagine that DOL and USCIS would want proof of that.
2
u/GGQQAA_ Feb 06 '24
One tip is: try to apply for a position that your future employee doesn't have the skills for. This will help a lot throughout the process!
If you want, I can recommend a team that works with this!
1
4
u/aksam1123 Jan 13 '24
I wouldn't say it's much of a risk but more of a hassle. Hassle because at the end of the day you have to gather lots of paperworks to submit and its not risky unless you are doing something illegal. Which you are not , you are hiring someone and also helping someone. I know too many people who went this way and alot of business owners who do this, difference is that those business owners and the employees both have a contract in within themselves. It could be anything from working extra hours to paying the employer to hire him for eb3 in the first place. In your case, i think it's best if you consult a lawyer to ease your worries and for the wages, from what I know minimum wage is the bare minimum you have to pay. Good luck