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Experience isn't only route to work visa


Mae Cheng

July 24, 2005

An employer wants to sponsor me to work as a designer. I have a degree in the field, but I have never held a job in the field. I've only had internships. Do I need letters from previous employers stating that I have worked in the field before my employer can sponsor me?

If you are trying to get an H-1B high-skilled worker visa and you have the equivalent of a U.S. bachelor's degree in your occupation, then you don't need to submit additional documents, said Cyrus Mehta, a Manhattan immigration attorney who is chairman of the board of trustees with the American Immigration Law Foundation based in Washington, D.C.


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If you don't have the equivalent of a bachelor's degree, then typically immigration officials look for three years of work experience for one year of study toward that bachelor's degree, Mehta explained. In this case, you would then need to have letters from previous employers, stating the length of time you worked for them.

If your employer is sponsoring you for U.S. permanent resident status, then letters from former employers may come in handy to show that you have specific experience that makes you

a qualified candidate for permanent residency based on the job you will fill

in the United States,

Mehta said.



I am an American citizen. I have a common-law wife who lives in Haiti and doesn't want to come to the United States. We have a baby who is 3 months old. Is the boy an American citizen?

Your baby, in this case, is not an American citizen, unless he was born in the United States, said Stan Mark, program director with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund based in Manhattan.

It sounds like the baby does not have permanent resident status in the United States, so you would have to petition for the child to become a permanent resident, Mark said.



How can I bring my sister-in-law, who is from China, to the United States to visit my family for a month?

Tourist visas are issued at the discretion of officials at the U.S. embassy or consulate where your sister-in-law is submitting her visa application, said Lynn Neugebauer, an attorney with the Safe Horizon Immigration Law Project in Jackson Heights. In deciding whether or not to issue a tourist visa, the officials will look at what kind of ties she has to China to figure out how likely it is that she will return home after her visit.

There is no application you need to fill out, but a letter of invitation from you specifically saying why you're having her come and how long she's staying might help, Neugebauer said. You also may want to consider submitting an I-134 affidavit of support for your sister-in-law, saying you will be financially responsible for her during her visit so she does not become a public charge.

About five years ago, my niece was petitioned for U.S. permanent resident status by her father. Recently, her father received a letter from immigration officials asking for evidence that he supported my niece. He was never married to my sister, and now my niece is 44 and living in Trinidad. He has no proof that he supported her, though he had been since the 1960s, when he was in the United States. How should he go about addressing immigration officials' concern?

Her father can get written affidavits from people who may have known that he supported your niece to try to address officials' concern, said Dolly Hassan, attorney at Liberty Center for Immigrants in Richmond Hill.

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