H-1B, L-1, O-1, TN, and E visas all let you work in the US, but each one fits a different kind of job offer and background. This finder compares your role, employer relationship, and qualifications against the most common work visa categories to point you toward the right one.
Filing the wrong work visa category, or missing the H-1B lottery window, can cost months. An immigration attorney confirms your strongest category and timeline at no cost.
Work visas are built around different relationships between you and your employer, not just job title. H-1B fits a standard employer-employee relationship for a specialty occupation requiring a degree. L-1 only works if you're transferring within the same multinational company. O-1 requires extraordinary ability evidence, not just a job offer. TN is limited to Canadian and Mexican citizens in specific listed professions. E-2 and E-3 depend on treaty relationships between the US and your home country. Picking based on job title alone, without checking the employer relationship and your nationality, is the most common mistake people make before talking to an attorney.
If your category doesn't fit a temporary work visa at all, because your case rests on extraordinary achievement rather than a standard job offer, the broader visa eligibility screener covers a wider set of pathways including family and investor categories. And if your employer is specifically transferring you from an overseas office rather than hiring you fresh, the L-1 intracompany transfer tool goes deeper into that specific category's requirements.
H-1B requires a "specialty occupation," generally meaning the job requires at least a bachelor's degree in a specific field. It's subject to an annual numerical cap and a lottery system for most applicants, with registration typically opening in March each year. Some employers, like universities and nonprofit research organizations, are cap-exempt and can file year-round. H-1B status is tied to the sponsoring employer, and changing jobs requires the new employer to file a new petition.
O-1 has no annual cap and no lottery, but requires documented extraordinary ability or achievement, evaluated against a high evidentiary standard. L-1 also has no cap but only applies to employees being transferred from a foreign office of the same company to a US office, in a managerial, executive, or specialized knowledge role, after working abroad for the company for at least 1 continuous year within the prior 3. Both move faster than H-1B specifically because they avoid the lottery, but each has its own strict qualification bar.
TN status is available only to Canadian and Mexican citizens working in one of a specific list of professions under the USMCA trade agreement, and offers fast processing without a lottery or annual cap. E-2 treaty investor and E-3 (Australian specialty occupation) visas depend entirely on a qualifying treaty between the US and your country of citizenship. If you don't hold citizenship in a treaty or USMCA country, these categories simply aren't available regardless of your job or qualifications, making nationality one of the first filters in this finder.