How do I get a Brazilian woman a US green card/work visa without having to propose?
So I met my dream woman the other day online. She was in town for about a month visiting her brother who has become an American Citizen and lives only a few minutes down the street. After a couple of e-mail exchanges we decide to grab a coffee together. Coffee became dinner, and dinner became several dates over the 2 weeks she had left in the country until she had to head back to Brazil for her work.
We’re keeping in touch via e-mail, and she wants to move to the US as soon as she gets the opportunity, but I’ve got the worst case of puppy-love I think I’ve ever had (and I’m 27 lol). Any thoughts on some strategies for getting her a US job HB-1 Visa style or some other method—as much as I like her, I think marriage might be a BIT premature, but any other thoughts would be awesome.
Oh, I should mention that she has a college degree in business administration and works for a bank, but I think her current job is more secretarial in nature to be honest.
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A hot, smart Brazilian chick with an MBA? God, you’re lucky.
Actually I don’t think it’s an MBA, but a BA in Business administration. I’m not 100% certain though. I do feel incredibly lucky, but I’d feel a hell-of-a-lot luckier if she lived on the same continent…
Oh. If its a Masters in BA then its an MBA. Got’cha
Just move down to brazil for a few months. Then you’ll know if she’s the one for you.
An H1-B visa is near impossible to get, this year’s allocation was filled in a day. She could enroll in grad school and come here on an F-1 student visa. You could also bring her here on a K-1 fiancee visa, but you have 90 days to decide to marry, if not, she has to go back.
90 days? it took me at least 120 before I farted in front of my last girlfriend. The INS really needs to lighten up :P
Thanks for all the responses thus far.
Doesn’t have to be grad school to do F-1. She could come here to take English classes or cooking classes or pottery classes, whatever, as long as she has a bunch of extra cash and 20 hours/week.
@nikipedia – It has to be a SEVIS approved school that has the ability to issue an I-20, so language school, for sure, pottery classes, probably not, unless it is an elective as part of a broader program. You also have to be a full-time student which used to mean 20 hours/week but the requirement is moving to 25 hours/week. You can get a list of SEVIS approved schools here. I suggested grad school since she already has a degree and might want to spend her time and money more productively.
What if she can get a job before she moves up, so the employer is a reference for the visa? Seems to me that’s how it works for US people trying to work places like Canada or Europe – if a company wants to hire you, you can get approved. Or is the US more annoying to foreigners in that way, too?
@Zaku – That wouldn’t work. Her employer here would have to help her get an H1-B visa and those have already been depleted for 2008, well, unless she goes to work for an institution that is exempt from the visa cap like a university. So yes, working here is harder in many ways than working in Canada (except Quebec) or Europe. There is always the H-2A Temporary Agricultural Worker Program though if she wants to pick lettuce or strawberries.
Interesting, Reed, thanks. I guess the situation is similar for Canada in that they want certain classes of workers, or people who can support themselves, but their list of classes of workers they want is pretty broad.
(Hmm and this isn’t gorillapaws’ situation, but I wonder if there is an exception if you create a job for someone. E.g. I create a business that has a unique need I invent, which coincidentally can only really be filled by person X, or more honestly, since my business is small I can choose whom I hire, and I only want person X? I guess maybe that won’t work because my invented job isn’t going to be in a category that’s an H1-B exception? Or essentially it’s not wanting a work visa, but providing for someone. I.e., the issue isn’t whether they’re allowed to hang out in the USA if someone is supporting them, but whether they have the right to enter the “formal” job market? )
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