Each year approximately 140,000 visa are made available for immigrant seeking employees. These E visas are divided into four classes. The H1B visas that are com

Each year approximately 140,000 visa are made available for immigrant seeking employees. These E visas are divided into four classes. The H1B visas that are common in tech are non-immigrant visas. You cannot use them to resettle in the US. For immigrant employees, workers must first get DOL approval after an "extensive and unsuccessful" attempt to recruit domestically--this is more rigorous than what employers have to do to bring in an H1B visiting worker. Best case scenario, you qualify as an E1: that requires that you have "extensive documentation showing sustained national or international acclaim and recognition in their fields of expertise," in which case no job offer is needed, OR you are an "outstanding professor or researcher" w/ intl. recognition, OR you are a "multinational manager or exec" with at least one year employment at an overseas branch of a US company. Second best is E2, for which you must have a graduate degree or a bachelor's and 5+ years professional experience OR have exceptional ability ("having a degree of expertise significantly above that ordinarily encountered in the sciences, arts, or business"). This requires a job offer cleared by DOL, or you can apply for a National Interest Waiver which allows you to enter without a job lined up. If you don't have a graduate degree of 5+ yrs experience, you are relegated to the E3 category. The E4 category is not applicable to tech jobs. The E5 category is an option if you have US$ 1mil (or half that in certain depressed areas) to invest and you are willing to commit to creating 10+ jobs for US persons in 2 years. So in most cases, your employer must attempt to find domestic candidates, not be successful, file ETA 9089 with the DOL to get a Permanent Labor Certification, and then file I-140 with USCIS. If approved, you must continue the process with the National Visa Center. Your immediate family can come with you. You must bring various documents and medical certifications to your US Embassy for an interview. Then, you would be issued an E class immigrant visa which you take to the US border and request admission to the country. After paying fees, you will receive an SSN card and your I-551 green card, making you a "lawful permanent resident" of the US.