Citizenship & Immigration: Work Permits

All immigrants to the United States need authorization to work in this country. For some, such as permanent residents and those granted asylum or refugee status, this comes automatically, but other immigrants will need to apply for authorization.

Types

• There are three basic types of work authorization for immigrants: temporary, permanent and student and exchange visitors.

Temporary

• Temporary workers enter the United States for a specific purpose and for a limited time. There are many categories of temporary workers. Some of them include fashion models, agricultural workers, representatives of foreign media, registered nurses, internationally recognized athletes, or entertainment groups and managers or executives transferred to the U.S. by their company.

Permanent

• About 140,000 permanent visas are given each year to immigrants based on their job skills, according to Citizenship and Immigration Services. There are five categories of permanent visas, including those with extraordinary abilities, outstanding professors or researchers, multinational executives or managers, those who hold an advanced degree in a profession, are skilled workers or professionals or immigrants seeking to start a new business or invest in a troubled one.

Students

• The U.S. admits thousands of foreign exchange students every year, according to Citizenship and Immigration Services. These include both academic and vocational students.