There are many different legal channels to immigrate into the United States. Basically, immigration visas can be grouped into following five categories: 

1. Family-based Immigration: If you have direct family relatives (spouse, parents, children, or even brothers and sisters) who are U. S. citizens, you may be qualified for immigrant visa to live in the United States as a permanent resident. However, your family relative must apply to the U. S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) for you and, some sub-categories may have quota limit each year and a waiting period for as long as over 10 years (such as brothers or sisters)

2. Employment-based Immigration: The United States is always welcoming the talented foreigners to work for the U. S. companies or educational institutions. As long as the American employer can prove to the satisfaction of the Labor Department that he or she can not find a qualified U. S. worker on the U. S. job market to fill the position the employer needed, then the U. S. Labor Department will issue a labor certificate to allow such employer to hire an alien worker on the permanent basis, and the INS will issue to such alien the immigration visa accordingly.

3. Investment Immigration: In order to encourage foreign capitalists to investment into the U.S. economy, the U. S. government allocate a special category of immigration visas to those alien investors who has invested a minimum $1,000,000 dollars worth of capital or equipment in a new business in the united States, and who has created at least 10 full-time jobs for the U. S. workers in the new business. In rural areas or certain urban area where there is a high unemployment rate, the minimum investment capital requirement can be reduced to $500,000.

4. Political Asylum and Refugee Protection: The United States government always protects any foreigners who have been or will be prosecuted by a foreign government or a state agency due to the reason of political standing, race, gender, religion belief, or human rights. If an alien has the reasonable fear that his or her personal safety or freedom will be in jeopardy if he or she returns his or her own country, she or she may apply for political asylum or refugee status in the United States.

5. Immigration Lottery: Each year the U. S. government will issue 10,000 immigration visas by drawing lotteries among the applicants from more than 100 countries. Any national from those countries on the lottery list can participate in the lottery. All you need to do is to fill in the lottery application form and mail it back to the INS. 

If you need any advice or help in your immigration exodus, please contact attorney John J. Ma immediately! Attorney John J. Ma can also help you in immigration to Canada.