Services

Every category, side by side.

This page lists what the firm handles and puts the close calls next to each other, so you can compare them rather than reading four pages and holding them in your head. If you cannot name your situation yet, start from the situation instead.

Comparing O-1, EB-1A and EB-2 NIW? Go straight to the table.

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Sources last checked August 16, 2026.

If you cannot name it yet

This page assumes you already have a word for your situation, even if it is the wrong word. If you do not, that is the more common way to arrive and it is not a worse one. The situations page runs the same catalogue sorted by the person rather than by the category, so you can look for the week you are actually having and let it hand you the category.

Published, quoted and broadcast by

South China Morning Post , Joe quoted
USA Today , Written by Joe
Yahoo Travel , Joe quoted
The Food Institute , Joe quoted
mitú , Joe quoted
AILA , Written by Joe
The Tennessean , Written by Joe
SiriusXM , Broadcast appearance
90.3 FM WPLN News , Broadcast appearance
Tennessee Bar Association , Written by Joe
Nashville Bar Association , Written by Joe

These are outside outlets, not pages I control. Where a link exists, the name opens the piece where it ran.

See every piece, with its date and source

Read the page that matches

On your own record, with no sponsor

For researchers, engineers, founders, clinicians and creators whose record is already built. No employer has to sponsor you. EB-1A and EB-2 NIW you file yourself, and on the O-1 an agent can be the petitioner, so your current employer does not have to be part of it.

O-1 visa

For the person whose record is stronger than their job title. An agent can be the petitioner, so your current employer does not have to be part of it or even know about it.

One visa, two sides: O-1A and O-1B.
EB-1A green card

The same evidence argued for permanent residence, against a higher bar, with no job offer and no employer required.
EB-2 NIW

For a specific plan that benefits the country, carried by someone positioned to do it. Publications help. They are not the price of admission.

Investing in a U.S. business

For someone buying or starting a business in the United States and coming to direct it.

E-2 treaty investor

For a national of a treaty country who has invested substantially in a U.S. business and comes to direct it. There is no dollar threshold, and it is not a green card.
EB-5 immigrant investor

For someone placing capital in a new commercial enterprise and creating jobs with it. This one is a green card, the amounts are set by statute, and the capital has to be genuinely at risk, which means it can be lost.

When a U.S. employer sponsors you

For the person being sponsored and for the company doing the sponsoring. Both read the same process from opposite ends, so the employer page comes first.

For employers

For a company sponsoring a worker, from the Department of Labor step through the petition itself, including which costs the law puts on the employer.
EB-1C green card

The green card a multinational company petitions for on behalf of an executive or a manager. No labor certification step, and the case turns on what the role actually is at both companies rather than on what it is called.
EB-1B for university and research faculty

The first-preference green card a university or research employer petitions for. No labor certification, two of six kinds of evidence, and a bar set at international recognition rather than at the very top of a field.
H-1B visa

One name over two different processes: the spring lottery most employers face, and the filings that never touch it, cap-exempt petitions, extensions, amendments and employer changes among them.
L-1A and L-1B transfers

Moving someone from a related company abroad into the U.S. entity. It turns on one year of qualifying work over there, described in the words the standard uses rather than in internal job titles.
EB-2 with labor certification

The second preference, reached through the Department of Labor step. Nobody chooses it: the minimum requirement the position genuinely carries is what puts a case there, or does not.
EB-3 skilled and professional workers

For the U.S. employer filling a role that does not require an advanced degree. The green card that follows labor certification, in three subgroups, and which subgroup applies is read off the job description rather than the resume.
E-2 employee of a treaty enterprise

For the treaty business hiring, and for the person hired. The employee has to hold the same treaty nationality as the enterprise, which decides the route before salary or title matters, and the role has to be executive, supervisory or genuinely specialized.

Family, status and citizenship

For families already here, and for the person whose next step is a change of status rather than a new category.

Family immigration

Marriage-based green cards, K-1, adjustment of status, removal of conditions, and citizenship.

Athletes, performers, and coaches

For athletes, teams, coaches, and groups that perform as a unit. You cannot file this one for yourself, and a performer working alone belongs on the O-1 side instead.

P-1 for athletes and performing groups

P-1A for athletes and teams, P-1B for a member of an internationally recognized entertainment group, and P-1S for essential support. The working regulation shows one door for athletes and the statute has four.

One category is named here and does not have a page of its own yet: the J-1 two-year rule waiver. As things stand now I am open to the work.

What I do not take: asylum, U or T visas, and deportation defense, which is also called removal. Those are different practices, and if that is your situation you want someone who does that work every day.

O-1, EB-1A and EB-2 NIW

O-1, EB-1A and EB-2 NIW, side by side

The same record can be read against all three, and they ask different questions. These rows are where they actually diverge.

O-1, EB-1A and EB-2 NIW compared on who files the petition, what the test is, what the record has to show, where cases turn, and the timeline.
Compare on	O-1 Nonimmigrant work visa	EB-1A Green card, employment first preference	EB-2 NIW Green card, employment second preference
Who files the petition	A U.S. employer or a U.S. agent. It is not self-petitioned.	You do. It is a self-petition.	You do. It is a self-petition inside EB-2.
Employer, job offer, labor certification	A U.S. petitioner is required. It does not have to be your current employer: an agent can file.	None. No job offer and no labor certification.	None. The job offer and the labor certification are waived.
What the test is	Three of eight criteria on the O-1A track, then a final merits determination.	One major internationally recognized award, or three of ten criteria, then a final merits determination.	EB-2 eligibility first, then the three prongs from Matter of Dhanasar.
What the record has to show	Sustained acclaim and standing at the top of the field on the O-1A track, or distinction in the arts on O-1B.	The same standing, read more strictly, plus intent to keep working in the field and prospective benefit to the United States.	A proposed endeavor with substantial merit and national importance, and that you are positioned to advance it.
Where these cases actually turn	The final merits step, and an advisory opinion that comes from an organization with its own process.	How the field is defined, and whether the acclaim is current.	The proposed endeavor. A vague one cannot be weighed.
Typical timeline	Premium processing is available on the I-129, and USCIS states 15 business days to act. Acting means an approval, a denial or a Request for Evidence. There is no visa queue after it, so the petition is the timeline.	Premium processing is available on the I-140 at 15 business days to act. Approval is not the finish: an immigrant visa number still has to be available, and that queue is published monthly in the Visa Bulletin.	Premium processing is available on the same I-140, but the waiver classification runs 45 business days, three times the EB-1A window. The same visa number queue follows it.

O-1

Nonimmigrant work visa

Who files the petition: A U.S. employer or a U.S. agent. It is not self-petitioned.
Employer, job offer, labor certification: A U.S. petitioner is required. It does not have to be your current employer: an agent can file.
What the test is: Three of eight criteria on the O-1A track, then a final merits determination.
What the record has to show: Sustained acclaim and standing at the top of the field on the O-1A track, or distinction in the arts on O-1B.
Where these cases actually turn: The final merits step, and an advisory opinion that comes from an organization with its own process.
Typical timeline: Premium processing is available on the I-129, and USCIS states 15 business days to act. Acting means an approval, a denial or a Request for Evidence. There is no visa queue after it, so the petition is the timeline.

EB-1A

Green card, employment first preference

Who files the petition: You do. It is a self-petition.
Employer, job offer, labor certification: None. No job offer and no labor certification.
What the test is: One major internationally recognized award, or three of ten criteria, then a final merits determination.
What the record has to show: The same standing, read more strictly, plus intent to keep working in the field and prospective benefit to the United States.
Where these cases actually turn: How the field is defined, and whether the acclaim is current.
Typical timeline: Premium processing is available on the I-140 at 15 business days to act. Approval is not the finish: an immigrant visa number still has to be available, and that queue is published monthly in the Visa Bulletin.

EB-2 NIW

Green card, employment second preference

Who files the petition: You do. It is a self-petition inside EB-2.
Employer, job offer, labor certification: None. The job offer and the labor certification are waived.
What the test is: EB-2 eligibility first, then the three prongs from Matter of Dhanasar.
What the record has to show: A proposed endeavor with substantial merit and national importance, and that you are positioned to advance it.
Where these cases actually turn: The proposed endeavor. A vague one cannot be weighed.
Typical timeline: Premium processing is available on the same I-140, but the waiver classification runs 45 business days, three times the EB-1A window. The same visa number queue follows it.

What separates these three is the question each one asks, so the row you care about tells you more than the column that looks strongest.

Each row is the general rule for that category. It is not a conclusion about your case.

Terms in this table

Final merits determination: The second look USCIS takes once the listed criteria are met, at the record as a whole rather than criterion by criterion.
Proposed endeavor: The specific work you are saying you will do in the United States.
Sustained national or international acclaim: Recognition your field has kept giving you rather than a single good year.
Agent: A petitioner who files on the beneficiary's behalf rather than employing them.
Labor certification: The Department of Labor step that comes first in an employer-sponsored green card.
Matter of Dhanasar: The administrative decision that replaced the old national interest framework, and still the governing test.

Not sure which one you are

Two ways to find out. The questionnaire is a short set of questions that points you at the categories worth reading about. The Case Blueprint is a written evaluation of your actual record, and it is the better choice if you were told no somewhere else and never found out which part of the record was the problem.

See which paths fit Start with a Case Blueprint

Prefer not to chat? Answer privately here.

The questionnaire is general information, not legal advice, and completing it does not make you a client.

If you are still not sure, that is what a consultation is for.

Bring what you have. I will tell you which categories are worth building toward, which ones I would rule out and why, and what I would want to see before anything gets filed. Some of those conversations end with me saying do not file yet. That is an answer too.

Two ways to start, and who you sit with

The first is a free intake with my team. The second is the paid consultation, and that one is with me.

Intake

15 minutes · Free

My paralegal team, not me

A short conversation to hear what is going on and get it written down properly. My paralegals ask about your status, your dates, your employer if there is one, and what you have already tried. By the end of it you know what a consultation with me would cover and whether it is worth booking one yet.

This step is intake and scheduling. My paralegals do not give legal advice, do not tell you whether you qualify for anything, and do not recommend a visa category. That part is mine, and it happens in the attorney consultation.
Attorney consultation

60 minutes · $150

If you go on to retain the firm for the matter the consultation covered, the fee is credited toward your fee for that case. The credit does not expire.

Joe Kwon, the attorney who would handle the case

This is where the legal discussion happens. You tell me what you have and what you are trying to do, and I tell you what I think, including when I think the answer is no. Some of these end with me not taking the case. That is a real result of the call, not a failure of it. I read what you send before we sit down, so the whole session goes to your question. The consultation runs as a video call, from wherever you are.

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