Immigration Resources

EMPLOYMENT BASED IMMIGRATION

Skilled & Possibly Skilled Positions

An employer who is interested in “sponsoring” an immigrant worker based upon a job offer needs to understand the legal difference between “skilled” and “unskilled” job positions. Under the law, a position will be classified as “skilled” only if the employer normally requires at least 2 years of training or experience as a condition to hiring an employee for that position (ie. the employer would only hire applicants who have at least 2 years of training or experience). “Unskilled” positions, however, are those positions that require less than 2 years of training or experience. This distinction is very important because workers who fill “unskilled” positions will not be eligible to get their green card or legally work for 5 to 10 years (based upon the present immigrant quota backlogs). On the other hand, there is presently NO BACKLOG in the “skilled” category, and thus immigrant visas are available to qualified applicants.

In an effort to facilitate the speedy processing of employment based sponsorship cases for our clients, we have prepared a list (below) of Job Positions which are classified as “skilled” or “possibly skilled” under the law. The positions in bold italics may require up to 2 years experience, but not more. They may be regarded as skilled positions, depending on the employer’s actual requirements. The un-italicized positions require at least two years experience, are already considered “skilled” positions.