Immigrant visa types

A United States passport lying on a map — Photo: Cytis via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

By Matthew H. Phillips · Updated September 2026

U.S. immigration law sorts every foreign national who comes here lawfully into one of two groups. An immigrant visa leads to a green card, which means permanent residence. A nonimmigrant visa is for a temporary stay with a set purpose: tourism, study or a specific job. The H-1B is a nonimmigrant visa. In practice it often works as the first step toward a green card, and that is one reason it matters far more than its "temporary" label suggests.

Immigrant visas: the routes to a green card

Congress sets most green-card routes and their yearly limits in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The main routes are:

Route	Who qualifies	Annual limit
Immediate relatives (IR)	Spouses, unmarried children under 21, and parents of adult U.S. citizens	No limit
Family preference (F1–F4)	Other relatives of citizens and green-card holders: adult children, married children, siblings of adult citizens	At least 226,000
Employment-based (EB-1 to EB-5)	Workers sponsored by employers, plus investors (EB-5)	About 140,000, plus unused family numbers
Diversity Visa (DV)	Lottery winners from countries with low immigration to the U.S.	Up to 55,000
Refugees and asylees	Adjust to permanent residence after one year	Refugee ceiling set by the President each year

No single country can take more than 7% of the family and employment preference visas in a year. That rule is why applicants from India and China wait far longer than others in the same category. The State Department's monthly Visa Bulletin shows how far back each line reaches.

The employment categories

EB-1: People of extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and multinational executives and managers.
EB-2: Professionals with advanced degrees or exceptional ability. The National Interest Waiver lets some applicants skip the labor certification step.
EB-3: Skilled workers, professionals with bachelor's degrees, and some other workers.
EB-4: Special immigrants such as religious workers and some international-organization employees.
EB-5: Investors who put $800,000 or $1,050,000 into a U.S. business and create at least 10 jobs.

Most EB-2 and EB-3 cases need a PERM labor certification first. That is the Labor Department's finding that no qualified U.S. worker is available for the job. Critics have long argued that the recruitment in these cases is often staged: ads are written and posted to find no one. In September 2026 the Labor Department froze new PERM filings for two technology employers while its Inspector General investigated. The Justice Department also sued one of them, saying its recruiting was designed to avoid hiring qualified Americans.

Nonimmigrant visas: the temporary categories

There are dozens of nonimmigrant classes, each named by a letter. The ones that matter most for the American job market are:

H-1B (specialty occupations): Jobs that normally require at least a bachelor's degree. The yearly cap is 65,000, plus 20,000 for holders of U.S. master's degrees. Universities, their affiliated nonprofits and government research groups are exempt from the cap. A stay can last six years, and it can be extended beyond that while a green card is pending. The employer must file a Labor Condition Application (LCA) promising to pay the higher of the actual wage or the prevailing wage.
L-1 (intracompany transferees): Managers (L-1A) and workers with "specialized knowledge" (L-1B) moved from a foreign branch. There is no cap and no prevailing-wage requirement.
F-1 students and OPT: After graduating, students can work for 12 months through Optional Practical Training. Graduates in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) can get 24 more months. OPT has no cap and no wage floor, and most OPT workers and their employers are exempt from Social Security and Medicare (FICA) taxes.
O-1: People of extraordinary ability in science, business, education, athletics or the arts.
TN: Canadian and Mexican professionals under the USMCA trade agreement.
H-2A and H-2B: Seasonal farm work (no cap) and seasonal non-farm work (66,000 a year, often raised by supplemental visas).
B-1 (business visitor): Allows meetings and conferences, not productive work. As the Visa fraud article explains, it has been misused as a cheaper stand-in for the H-1B.

What changed in 2025–2026

Wage-weighted H-1B selection. A DHS rule published December 29, 2025 replaced the random H-1B lottery, starting with the FY 2027 cap season. Each registration now gets entries by wage level: four at Level IV, three at III, two at II and one at Level I. Higher-paid jobs now have better odds, and entry-level substitution has worse ones.
The $100,000 H-1B fee. A September 2025 proclamation put a $100,000 charge on new H-1B petitions for workers outside the country. On June 8, 2026, a federal court in Massachusetts set aside the policy used to collect it, and on July 24 the First Circuit refused to pause that ruling. A September 18, 2026 proclamation extends the fee through September 21, 2027. As of late September, USCIS says it is not collecting the fee, and the appeal is still pending.
Immigrant visa pause for 75 countries. Since January 21, 2026, the State Department has held immigrant visas for nationals of 75 countries, citing public-charge concerns (the risk that applicants will rely on public benefits). Nonimmigrant visas, including the H-1B, are not affected.
Diversity lottery hold. Diversity Visa processing was paused in December 2025 for a review of how applicants are vetted. In August 2026 a federal judge in California ordered it restarted, but processing stayed far below normal ahead of the September 30 fiscal-year deadline.

These figures and rules change often. Check the linked agency pages for the current status before relying on them.