The Employment Priority System allows certain individuals who come to the United States for the purpose of employment to obtain permanent resident status. Current immigration law allows the issuance of 140,000 immigrant work visas each year.
There are five different classes of visas:
| First category | First category visas are for those who have employment priority. These include persons of outstanding ability, outstanding scientists and researchers, some managers and executives of international corporations. The number of visas in this category cannot exceed 40,000 per year. The remainder of the fourth and fifth category visas are added to this number. |
| Second category | Visas of the second category are issued to people who have scientific degrees in their specialty, as well as to talented foreigners. The number of visas in this category cannot exceed 40,000 per year. All outstanding visas of the 1st category are added to this number. |
| Third Category | Third category visas are issued to experienced workers, professionals, and other categories of workers. Other categories of workers are defined as persons capable of performing unskilled work that is not temporary or seasonal in nature. The number of visas issued to unskilled workers cannot exceed 5,000 per year. Experienced workers are defined as persons capable of performing skilled types of work that require at least 2 years of work or study in the given specialty. The number of visas in this category cannot exceed 40 thousand per year. All outstanding visas of the 1st and 2nd category are added to this number. |
| Fourth Category | This category is for religious clergy, employees of religious organizations, employees of the U.S. government, and certain other categories of aliens. The number of visas in this category cannot exceed 10,000 per year. |
| Fifth category | These visas are issued to individuals who are able to invest between $500,000 and $3 million to establish an enterprise in the United States that will create a specific number of jobs. The minimum number of jobs created through this investment must be at least 10 per investor. The amount of investment depends on the region in which the investment is made. If the investor does not meet one of the requirements set by law, he/she may lose their permanent resident status in the United States. The number of visas in this category cannot exceed 10,000 per year. |