How to Get a Work Visa in the USA: Types, Costs, and Steps

Getting a work visa in the USA generally means three things happening in order: you identify the visa category that matches your job and background, a U.S. employer files a petition for you with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and once that petition is approved, you apply for the visa stamp at a U.S. embassy or consulate abroad. Two federal agencies split the workload. USCIS handles employer petitions filed inside the United States, and the Department of State runs the consular interview and issues the visa.

Figure Out Which Work Visa You Need

Federal law defines dozens of nonimmigrant classifications, but a small group covers most foreign workers. Which one fits you depends on the job, your qualifications, your employer, and sometimes your nationality.

H-1B for Specialty Occupations

The H-1B is the most well-known work visa. It covers jobs that require at least a bachelor’s degree, or its equivalent, in a directly related specialty field. Common fields include engineering, IT, finance, architecture, and the sciences. The maximum period of stay is generally six years, split into an initial three years with one three-year extension.¹

Congress caps new H-1B visas at 65,000 per fiscal year, with an additional 20,000 reserved for workers holding a master’s or higher from a U.S. institution. Because demand outstrips supply, USCIS runs an electronic lottery. Employers submit a registration ($215 per beneficiary) during a narrow spring window, and only selected registrations can go on to a full petition.²

L-1 for Company Transfers

The L-1 lets multinational companies move employees from a foreign office to a U.S. branch, subsidiary, or affiliate. The L-1A covers managers and executives, with a seven-year cap. The L-1B covers employees with specialized knowledge of the company’s products or processes and tops out at five years.³ Either way, you must have worked for the overseas entity continuously for at least one year within the three years before applying.⁴

O-1 for Extraordinary Ability

The O-1 is for people with national or international acclaim in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics. Evidence can include major awards, published research, high salary relative to peers, or a record of significant contributions.⁵ There is no annual cap and no lottery. Initial approval is for up to three years, with one-year extensions available indefinitely as long as you continue the qualifying activity.

H-2A and H-2B for Seasonal Work

The H-2A covers agricultural jobs like planting, harvesting, and livestock work. There is no annual cap, and the maximum stay is three years, after which you must leave the country for at least 60 days before returning.⁶

The H-2B covers non-agricultural seasonal work such as hospitality, landscaping, and seafood processing. The statutory cap is 66,000 per fiscal year, split evenly between the two halves, and Congress frequently authorizes extra visas. For fiscal year 2026, an additional 64,716 H-2B visas were made available beyond the cap.⁷

Treaty Visas: TN, E-2, and E-3

Some categories are open only to citizens of specific countries. Canadian and Mexican professionals can use the TN classification under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to work in pre-approved professions including engineering, accounting, and scientific research.⁸

The E-2 treaty investor visa is available to nationals of countries with a qualifying commerce treaty. You must invest a substantial amount of capital in a real, operating U.S. business and play an active role in directing it. The enterprise cannot be marginal; it has to be capable of generating more than a minimal living for the investor’s family.⁹

Australian citizens have the E-3, which mirrors the H-1B specialty occupation requirements but comes with its own annual allotment of 10,500 visas.¹⁰

What Your Employer Has to Do First

Every petition-based work visa starts with the employer, not you. Before anything else, the employer has to satisfy a Department of Labor requirement that varies by category.

For H-1B, H-1B1, and E-3 petitions, the employer files a Labor Condition Application (LCA) with the Department of Labor.¹¹ The LCA is a binding attestation that the employer will pay at least the prevailing wage for the occupation in the area where you’ll work. The Department of Labor can order back pay and impose penalties if the employer violates that commitment.¹²

For H-2A and H-2B, the employer instead obtains a temporary labor certification showing that not enough qualified U.S. workers are available and that hiring foreign workers will not depress wages or working conditions for similarly employed Americans.⁷

Only after that step does the employer file Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, with USCIS. The form asks for detailed information about the company’s size, revenue, employee count, and the duties of the offered job, and it is signed under penalty of perjury.¹³ Errors or inconsistencies can trigger a Request for Evidence from USCIS, which delays the case by weeks or months.

What You Need to Provide as the Worker

Your side of the paperwork depends on the visa category, but there is a common core. Start gathering these well before the employer files:

A valid passport that will remain valid for at least six months beyond your intended stay.
Educational credentials, meaning diplomas and transcripts. Foreign degrees need a formal credential evaluation from an accredited evaluation service that establishes the U.S. equivalent.
A detailed resume and reference letters from previous employers confirming your job titles, duties, and dates of employment.
Category-specific evidence. For an O-1, that means documentation of awards, publications, high compensation, or other proof of extraordinary ability. For an L-1, it means proof of one continuous year of employment with the overseas company within the last three years.

Eligibility standards vary by category. For H-1B, you need a bachelor’s or its equivalent in a field directly related to the job.¹⁴ For E-2, the focus shifts to whether you have committed substantial capital to a viable U.S. business.⁹

The Petition, Interview, and Entry

Once USCIS approves the I-129 petition, it issues an I-797B Notice of Action confirming the approval.¹⁵ You then complete the DS-160 Online Nonimmigrant Visa Application through the Department of State’s Consular Electronic Application Center.¹⁶ The DS-160 collects biographical data, travel history, and security information, requires a compliant digital photograph, and takes roughly 90 minutes. Submitting it is a prerequisite for scheduling the consular interview.

Next, you schedule the interview at a U.S. embassy or consulate. Wait times vary widely by location and season. The Department of State publishes current wait times by consulate, and at high-volume posts, waits of several weeks are common.¹⁷

At the interview, a consular officer verifies that the job offer is legitimate and assesses whether you intend to comply with the terms of the visa. Be ready to explain your professional background, the specific role, and, for categories that do not permit dual intent, your ties to your home country. A successful interview results in a visa stamp placed in your passport.

The stamp gets you on the plane; it does not finalize your admission. At the port of entry, a Customs and Border Protection officer conducts a separate inspection and decides whether to admit you. If admitted, you receive an electronic I-94 record showing your admitted-until date. That date, not the visa stamp expiration, controls how long you can legally stay.¹⁸ You can look up your I-94 anytime through CBP.¹⁹

What It Costs

Work visa costs stack up across multiple agencies and stages. The main line items:

Form I-129 base filing fee, paid to USCIS. The amount varies by classification and by whether you file online or by mail. Check the current USCIS fee schedule (Form G-1055), because fees were updated in 2024 and again in 2026.
Asylum Program Fee added to the I-129 filing fee. Large employers with more than 25 full-time equivalent employees pay $600, small employers pay $300, and nonprofits are exempt.²⁰
Premium processing, optional, which forces USCIS adjudication within 15 business days. As of March 1, 2026, the fee for H-1B, L-1, O-1, TN, E-1, E-2, and E-3 petitions is $2,965.²¹
H-1B registration fee of $215 per beneficiary, paid during the electronic registration window before any petition can be filed.²
Consular visa application fee (the MRV fee) of $205 for petition-based categories including H, L, O, P, Q, and R, paid to the Department of State when you apply for the visa stamp.²²
Credential evaluation for foreign degrees, generally $95 to $250.
Certified English translations of diplomas, transcripts, and other records, generally $20 to $40 per page.

The employer is legally required to pay the base petition filing fee and cannot pass it on to you. Consular fees and credential evaluations are usually the worker’s responsibility. All in, the employer side of a single H-1B petition can easily exceed $5,000 once legal fees, the base petition fee, the Asylum Program Fee, and optional premium processing are added together.

Bringing Your Family

Most work visa categories let your spouse and unmarried children under 21 come with you on a dependent visa. H-1B families use H-4 status; L-1 families use L-2. Dependent status is tied to yours, so if your work visa expires or is revoked, your family loses status too.

Whether your spouse can work depends on the category. L-2 spouses are authorized to work automatically as part of their status and can show an I-94 stamped with the “L-2S” code as proof.²³ H-4 spouses face a higher bar and can apply for an Employment Authorization Document only if the H-1B worker is the beneficiary of an approved I-140 immigrant petition or has been granted H-1B status beyond six years under the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act.²⁴

Children who turn 21 or marry while in the U.S. age out of dependent status and must qualify for their own visa or leave. Track those birthdays when you plan.

Staying Legal and Changing Jobs

Your status is tied to a specific employer. You cannot quit and start work somewhere else without going through a proper transfer, and getting this wrong can drop you out of status with no easy fix.

H-1B has a portability provision. You can start work for a new employer as soon as that employer files a new, non-frivolous H-1B petition for you with USCIS; you do not have to wait for approval.¹ That matters, because transfer petitions can take months to adjudicate.

If you lose your job, whether you quit or are laid off, you get a limited grace period. Workers in E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1, and TN status get up to 60 consecutive days, or until their authorized stay expires, whichever comes first, to find a new sponsor, change to a different status, or leave the country.²⁵ You cannot work during the grace period unless a new employer files an H-1B petition for you, in which case you can start immediately on USCIS receipt. The grace period is available only once per authorized petition validity period, so you cannot chain multiple 60-day windows.

If You Want a Green Card Later

Not every work visa lets you pursue permanent residency while keeping your temporary status. The concept is dual intent, meaning the law recognizes you can hold a temporary visa and simultaneously seek a green card without violating your nonimmigrant status. H-1B and L-1 have explicit dual intent protection in the statute. Most other categories, including H-2B, TN, and O-1, do not, which means a consular officer could deny a visa renewal if they believe you plan to stay permanently.

For H-1B workers, the common path starts with the employer filing a PERM labor certification with the Department of Labor, followed by an I-140 immigrant petition at USCIS. Once at least 365 days have passed since filing either, and neither has been denied, USCIS can grant one-year H-1B extensions beyond the usual six-year cap.¹ Workers from countries with heavy backlogs, particularly India and China, often rely on these extensions for years while waiting for an immigrant visa number.

L-1A holders have a more direct route. Because L-1A already requires managerial or executive capacity, many L-1A workers qualify for the EB-1C immigrant category, which skips labor certification and often has shorter wait times than the EB-2 or EB-3 categories most H-1B workers use.

If you are on a visa without dual intent, a green card is still possible, but the timing is more delicate. The safer play is to switch to an H-1B or L-1 before your employer starts the green card process, so intent questions at your next consular interview become legally irrelevant.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. FAQs for Individuals in H-1B Nonimmigrant Status
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. H-1B Cap Season
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. L-1B Intracompany Transferee Specialized Knowledge
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U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual. 9 FAM 402.12 – Intracompany Transferees – L Visas
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. O-1 Visa: Individuals with Extraordinary Ability or Achievement
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. H-2A Temporary Agricultural Workers
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. H-2B Temporary Non-Agricultural Workers
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. TN USMCA Professionals
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. E-2 Treaty Investors
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U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 62Y: What Are the Requirements to Participate in the E-3 Program
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U.S. Department of Labor. Important Foreign Labor Certification H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3 Information
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker
14
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. H-1B Specialty Occupations
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-797: Types and Functions
16
U.S. Department of State. Online Nonimmigrant Visa Application
17
U.S. Department of State – Bureau of Consular Affairs. Visa Appointment Wait Times
18
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-94, Arrival/Departure Record, Information for Completing USCIS Forms
19
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. I-94/I-95 Website
20
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. H and L Filing Fees for Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker
21
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS to Increase Premium Processing Fees
22
U.S. Department of State. Fees for Visa Services
23
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Employment Authorization for Certain H-4, E, and L Nonimmigrant Dependent Spouses
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Employment Authorization for Certain H-4 Dependent Spouses
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Options for Nonimmigrant Workers Following Termination of Employment