Differences Between a Green Card and H-1B Visa

The benefits of obtaining a Green Card over an H1-B visa are as follows: 

 The H1-B Work Visa provides temporary residency in the U.S. The H1-B visa is tied to the job and requires employer sponsorship. Dependents, such as children of H1-B visa holders, can enjoy residency status in the U.S. only until the age of 21. After that, such dependents need to secure their own residency status under a different immigration category to continue staying in the U.S. Additionally, even with a favorable job offer from an employer, obtaining an H1-B visa can often be challenging, as it operates on a lottery system. Only a fraction of applicants is selected from the pool of those who apply for the H1-B visa, making the process highly uncertain. In other words, due to this oversaturated lottery system, even with sponsorship, there is no guarantee of obtaining an H1-B visa. The H1-B Visa also makes career growth more complicated, as for every new vertical job title they must re-apply for the H1-B Visa, being put back into the saturated lottery system and facing an uncertain outcome once more.

 Because the H1-B visa requires employer sponsorship, flexibility in changing jobs is very limited, which restricts career growth. In the event of a layoff, an H1-B holder has 60 days to find a new job; otherwise, they must return to their home country.

H1-B visa holders have the option to apply for a Green Card/permanent residency. However, this route often involves inordinately long waiting periods—sometimes exceeding 10 to 15 years, especially for certain nationalities like Indians.

Obtaining a direct Green Card through popular investment immigration programs, such as the U.S. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program, is always a favorable option. There are numerous benefits associated with securing a Green Card through such programs. A Green Card grants permanent residency status, allowing an individual to live and work in the U.S. indefinitely, with the option to renew it every 10 years. Permanent residency can be secured in a short time span of just a few months through the U.S. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program. U.S. EB-5 Program also provides immediate access to the U.S. without the need to demonstrate ties to any employer or sponsor. Green Card holders can freely pursue any job, business, freelance work, study, or even retirement while enjoying all the benefits of residency in the U.S., without the requirement of employer sponsorship. Additionally, dependents also receive direct Green Card/permanent residency.

The H1-B Work Visa provides temporary residency in the U.S. The H1-B visa is tied to the job and requires employer sponsorship. Dependents, such as children of H1-B visa holders, can enjoy residency status in the U.S. only until the age of 21. After that, such dependents need to secure their own residency status under a different immigration category to continue staying in the U.S. Additionally, even with a favorable job offer from an employer, obtaining an H1-B visa can often be challenging, as it operates on a lottery system. Only a fraction of applicants is selected from the pool of those who apply for the H1-B visa, making the process highly uncertain. In other words, due to this oversaturated lottery system, even with sponsorship, there is no guarantee of obtaining an H1-B visa.

Because the H1-B visa requires employer sponsorship, flexibility in changing jobs is very limited, which restricts career growth. In the event of a layoff, an H1-B holder has 60 days to find a new job; otherwise, they must return to their home country.

H1-B visa holders have the option to apply for a Green Card/Permanent Residency. However, this route often involves inordinately long waiting periods—sometimes exceeding 10 to 15 years, especially for certain nationalities like Indians.

Obtaining a direct Green Card through popular investment immigration programs, such as the U.S. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program, is always a favorable option. There are numerous benefits associated with securing a Green Card through such programs. A Green Card grants permanent residency status, allowing an individual to live and work in the U.S. indefinitely, with the option to renew it every 10 years. Permanent residency can be secured in a short time span of just a few months through the U.S. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program. U.S. EB-5 Program could also provide immediate access to the U.S. without the need to demonstrate ties to any employer or sponsor. Green Card holders can freely pursue any job, business, freelance work, study, or even retirement while enjoying all the benefits of residency in the U.S., without the requirement of employer sponsorship. Additionally, dependents also receive direct Green Card/Permanent Residency.

Once an individual holds an H1-B visa, he or she becomes eligible to apply for Form I-140 through employer sponsorship, an immigrant petition for an alien worker, as the H1-B is considered a dual-intent visa. This allows the H1-B visa holder to apply for a Green Card/Permanent Residency. However, this route often involves inordinately long waiting periods—sometimes exceeding 10 to 15 years, especially for certain nationalities like Indians. The filing date of Form I-140 establishes the Priority Date, which determines whether an applicant is eligible to obtain a Green Card/Permanent Residency and other relevant adjustment of status benefits such as Employment Authorization, etc. Only if there is no backlog and the Priority Date is current, can an applicant who is present in the U.S. file the I-485 application to adjust status. While waiting for the Green Card, the applicant can simultaneously apply for an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) and a travel document called Advance Parole. This allows the applicant to live and work legally in the U.S. during the pending Green Card process. The EAD will permit the holder to work for any employer in the U.S. without sponsorship, and the Advance Parole will allow the holder to travel outside the U.S. and re-enter. 

To avoid any backlogs in applying for a Green Card through the H1-B visa category, an applicant can consider applying for a Green Card through the U.S. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program, where there is currently no backlog. This means the Green Card could be obtained in a few months, and even the employment authorization could be obtained immediately while waiting for the Green Card issuance.

U.S. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program is becoming quite popular amongst international students wishing to acquire quick Green Card or Permanent Residency. The primary reason for the recent favouritism amongst the students for this immigration program is the latest favourable changes made to the U.S. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program under the Reforms and Integrity Act of 2022. With the guidance of qualified immigration consultants and lawyers, students can opt for the U.S. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program to obtain direct Green Card in the U.S. and easily overcome the impending hurdles and restrictions pertinent to residency and working rights in the U.S.

Due to uncertainty and challenges looming on the general study and work category visas such as F1 and H1-B, it is extremely difficult for the students to continue staying in the U.S. post completion of their education in the U.S. and find a suitable job which could compliment their specialised qualification. Even after completing their education from the premium institutions of the U.S., it is enormously difficult for them to obtain a suitable immigration status which could further offer them residency and working rights in the U.S. Popular work visas such as H1-B are lottery based and highly competitive streams, as the number of applicants far exceeds the number of visa allocation. This apparent over saturation of the system makes it challenging and uncertain for the applicants to obtain H1-B visas. In such cases the latest amendments made in the U.S. EB-5 program allow the EB-5 applicants already present in the U.S. to benefit from a new process called Adjustment of Status (AOS) concurrent filing. Under this new process, once the EB-5 application is filed with USCIS, depending on the circumstances of such applicants, we can concurrently file for other applications as well such as AOS, Employment Authorization, and Travel Document. This provides the applicants of the U.S. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program with immediate working and residency rights to work and stay in the U.S. without any restrictions. This means that the applicants don’t have to wait for the approval of the initial EB-5 application to start enjoying working and residency rights in the U.S., in fact, they can enjoy the option of staying and working in the U.S, even while waiting for the Green Card to be issued under the U.S. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program.