Green card
Well we all have our different stories.
Mine started years ago when I tried for about a year to get a H1B visa only to find that no company in the US would sponsor me period ! So that was the end of that !!
Im an Aussie by the way.
I then got married to an Aussie lady who was working for a French company at the time. A short while later she was asked by her company to transfer to the US and was issued a L1 visa ( intercompany transfer ) which took 8 months for her company to get for her.
It was a long wait and the company had to produce a heap of material for the government to look at to justify why they were hiring an Aussie over a Yank.
The beauty of an L1 visa is that it allows the spouse( L2) of the Primary entrant to obtain an INS EAC ( employment authorisation card ) which can only be applied for once residing in the country.
It took another 4 months for me to get the EAC and I am now waiting on one final piece of paper which is the social security number ( like a tax file number ) which takes about 1 month to get from application.
So all up it has been about 14 months to get to here and the cost exceeded $5000 for her company to make application through an immigration lawyer.
The L1 visa is valid for 5 years but the employment auth on it is valid for only 3 thus you need to do a renewal prior to it expiring.
The L1 allows the primary to work for only the sponsoring company.
The L2 is valid for 5 years but requires renewal every year. It allows the L2 holder to work for any company without constraint. Once you have a social security number for tax purposes.
So that’s my story !!