EB-4 Visa: Employment-Based Special Immigrant Visa

An EB-4 visa is a special employment-based immigrant visa that allows certain noncitizens that don’t fall into other categories and aren’t investors to live in the United States. The EB-4 visa is for people with special employment arrangements or special situations that are considered “Fourth Preference” immigrants. The term “employment-based” is used loosely though because some EB-4 visas are given to people that don’t even have jobs.

You may be eligible for an EB-4 visa if you can prove that you fit into a special immigrant subcategory. The special immigrant subcategories include:

• Religious workers
• Special Immigrant Juveniles
• Certain broadcasters
• S. armed forces member
• Certain physicians
• Certain others

As you can see, the EB-4 category is quite diverse. This guide explains the subcategories of EB-4 visas, discusses the steps for applying for an EB-4 special immigrant visa, and answers some of the frequently asked questions about EB-4 visas.

EB-4 Visa Guide

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has five categories for employment-based visas. EB-4 visas are an immigrant visa. That means they make EB-4 visa holders in the U.S. eligible for green cards and allow the noncitizens to stay in the United States indefinity.

EB-4 Subcategories

Religious workers. This category has experienced some downsizing. To qualify in the coming years, you will need to be a minister coming to work as an employee for a U.S. registered non-profit religious organization or a non-profit organization that is affiliated with a genuine religious denomination in the country. 

Special Immigrant Juveniles. The Special Immigrant Juveniles subcategory doesn’t involve a job or job offer, but if you are an SIJ, you can seek an EB-4 visa. There is no employer requirement, so there is no labor certificate needed. Family members can’t use your EB-4 visa for their own derivative visa in this subcategory either. You must be unmarried, under 21 and living in the United States. Other eligibility requirements also exist.

Certain broadcasters. If you are a noncitizen coming to work in the United States as a broadcaster for United States Agency for Global Media or for a grantee of USAGM, you may qualify for an EB-4 visa.

U.S. armed forces member. You might qualify for an EB-4 visa if you have served or are serving honorably on active duty for a specific length of time. If you have only served 6 years, but promise to serve another six, then you might qualify.

Importantly though, you must be from a country that lets its nationals enlist in the U.S. armed forces by treaty. This is an often unrealized factor that can be devastating to U.S. veterans who thought that they might be able to live permanently in the United States through military service. The only countries that currently allow this by treaty are the Philippines, the Republic of the Marshall Islands & the Federal States of Micronesia.

Certain physicians.  Certain physicians came to the United States at a time when the nation was in dire need for doctors. To qualify for this subcategory of special immigrant, you must have graduated from a foreign medical school or had a license to practice medicine in a foreign county. Plus, you had to be practicing medicine with a full and permanent license in the United States on January 9, 1978.

Other EB-4 subcategories. Other subcategories are even more complex than the more common ones explained above. They include, but aren’t limited to, certain translators, certain S nonimmigrants, some former employees of a G-4 international organization, some NATO-6 civilian workers, some employees of the United States government, former Panama Canal company employees, and former Canal Zone government employees. If you think you may qualify for a special immigrant visa, please contact Warren Law Firm so that we can discuss your qualifications.