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Comment by CobrastanJorji | Hacker News Reader

What makes it not a visa? It's permission to enter the U.S., that's what a visa is, isn't it? Also, I that's it's pretty common to call it that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EB-1_visa

But yes, the majority of recipients get them because they're managers at big companies.

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In the U.S. system, no visa (including a green card==permanent residency) constitutes permission to enter the country. A visa only enables the holder to travel to a port of entry and request permission to enter the country. That permission may be granted or denied regardless of the specific visa category. Even if you have a gold-plated, von-Neumann-league visa... if the employee at the bottom of the CIS/CBP/* org chart who takes your passport is having a bad day, you'll be on the next outbound flight.

Only U.S. citizenship implies a right to enter the country.

EDIT fix typo

No, LPRs are sort of an intermediate category. CBP can't take away your LPR status, only an immigration judge or court can. So CBP has to let you in although you may be given a notice to appear in an immigration court. Trump discovered this when his administration tried to bar green card holders from muslim majority countries from re-entering the US.

That's a dangerous oversimplification. Say you are a US lawful permanent resident. CBP has the power to deem your LPR status as having been abandoned (e.g., if you've been spending too much of your time outside the US, or established sufficient ties==primary residence in another country) or revoked (e.g., if you've committed one of a variety of crimes, which include any conceivable threat to national security). That determination depends only on the CBP officer having reason to believe that's the case; there's no need for any judge to get involved. Incidentally, many [0] believe that refusing to give CBP full access to the data stored on your personal computing device(s) can constitute sufficient grounds.

Once that happens, CBP can initiate expedited removal proceedings: you are forced into some cell in the airport, without access to legal counsel or any possibility of communicating with the outside world, in some cases without access to the medications you need to take... until it's time for the next flight to the country that issued your passport. Since you've effectively been deported, you can get hit with a 5-yr ban on reentering the US. And you'll have a lot of explaining to do every time you apply for a visa for any country for the rest of your life, because the "Have you ever been deported?" little question is everywhere.

All this could happen, and has happened. (Not going into the side issues of what it takes for visas in various categories to be revoked, or why Trump's travel ban got watered down: which actually happened for a different reason)

[0] https://www.aclunc.org/our-work/know-your-rights/know-your-r...

Do you have an references for expedited removal being applied to LPRs? That link you included has this:

"Lawful Permanent Residents (green card holders or LPRs): You only have to answer questions establishing your identity and permanent residency (in addition to customs-related questions). Refusal to answer other questions will likely cause delay, but officials may not deny you entry into the U.S. for failure to answer other questions. LPR status may be revoked only by an immigration judge. Do not give up your green card voluntarily!"

Which strongly implies that CBP can't use expedited removal or consider you inadmissable when you apply for entry. You could certainly be detained until you are seen by a judge though (probably not much better) and I've heard of people being pressured by CBP to fill out a I407 (surrendering your LPR status) and then being removed.

EB-1 does NOT grant permission to enter the U.S. You can have an approved I-140 in the EB-1 category but it is useless unless you also file an I‑485/DS-260 and get a green card.

> It's permission to enter the U.S., that's what a visa is, isn't it?

I don't think so.

You can't get EB-1 status unless you are already on some visa (H-1, O-1, etc). Once you start the green card process, at some point, you'll get paperwork letting you travel even though the green card has not yet been approved. Prior to that, you cannot unless your existing visa (H-1, etc) is still valid.

EB-1/2/3 are categories under which you apply for a green card - they are not visas.

That’s false. You can apply for EB visas from outside the US. After the approval of the I-140 (application for employment-based visa), instead of “adjustment” of your visa status in the US, you perform immigrant visa processing at your local consulate to get your green card.

You can still travel after filing the I-140 but not after filing the I-485 (adjustment) without advance parole.

Not sure why this comment is being downvoted. It's exactly right: you can apply for EB visas (or any other permanent resident classification you're eligible for) without any prior connection to the US and get an "immigrant visa" in your passport to travel to the US.

There is no such thing as EB visas.

While your greencard is processed you can indefinitely renew your current visa (eg HB1 you get it for 3 years and can renew only once, with application pending you can keep renewing it).

Also, Green Card has different stages with their own limitations PERM -> I140 -> I485 -> green card.

The US Department of State has a webpage literally called "Employment-Based Immigrant Visas": https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrat...

It's not common for people with no prior connection to the US get one of these, but it is 100% possible. You can look up statistics on the number of employment green card visas issued here: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/v... In the PDF you need to search for E1, E2, etc.

you're missing the point. the immigration "visa" is actually the green card. while your greencard, under EB-X category is processing, you still need a "proper" dual-intent visa like HB1.

You don’t need to be the US while applying for a green card. You can be living in, like, France, and apply for an EB1 green card with USCIS and then when it’s approved go to the US Embassy for a EB1 visa stamp and move to the US. This is what I meant.

In this case you don’t need a non immigrant visa because you don’t live in the US while it’s processing.

Okay, let's try this another way. 8 US Code § 1153, "Allocation of immigrant visas," has the section for EB (employment-based) immigrants. (b) (1) begins: "Visas shall first be made available...to qualified immigrants who are aliens described in any of the following subparagraphs (A) through (C): (A) Aliens with extraordinary ability, (B) Outstanding professors and researchers, (C) Certain multinational executives and managers".

Is this section of the U.S. code talking about EB-1s when it says "Visas shall be made available," and, if not, what is it talking about?

so, by this criteria, a US passport is a visa? i mean it does give you the permission to enter the US?

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