Skip to content
Pro Lifeset OverseasPrivate Limited

United States · Visa guide

United States Work Permit (Information Only)

Information about work-permit pathways across countries. Lifeset Overseas does NOT process work permits — work permits require a separate MEA Recruiting Agent (RA) licence under the Emigration Act. These pages exist for applicant awareness only; we cannot assist with these applications.

  • ProcessingVaries by case
  • Visa categoryWork Permit (Information Only)
  • Your guideOne consultant
Get a free assessmentWhatsApp us

Start here

United States Work Permit (Information Only) — overview

What this page is, and what it is not

This is an informational reference to the United States's main work-permit pathways: H-1B, L-1, O-1 and TN classifications. Lifeset Overseas does not process work permits — see the disclaimer at the top of this page. We hold a Punjab travel-professional consultancy licence, not an MEA Recruiting Agent licence under the Emigration Act, and arranging overseas employment requires the latter.

We publish this because half the harm done to families in Punjab comes from not understanding how these systems work. If you can read the structure below, you can tell a genuine offer from a fraud.

The single most important thing to understand

In the United States, a work permit is not something you buy and not something an agent can hand you. It starts with an employer, and the employer carries most of the process. Anyone who offers to sell you a job, a sponsorship, a nomination or a permit for a fee is describing something that does not legally exist in the way they are presenting it.

If someone asks you for money to "arrange" employment abroad, ask them for their MEA Recruiting Agent registration number and verify it before you part with anything. We do not hold one, which is precisely why we will not take this work.

How the pathway actually runs

The steps below are the real sequence. Note how much of it happens before you personally apply for anything — that shape is the tell. A process that starts with you paying a fee is not this process.

What we can help with instead

We cannot help you with a work permit. We can help you with:

  • Study routes to the United States and elsewhere, which in several countries lead to post-study work rights in their own right
  • Visitor and family visas
  • Permanent-residence routes that are points-based rather than employer-sponsored
  • Refusal recovery — CAIPS/GCMS notes, understanding what actually went wrong, and rebuilding a file

If a work permit is genuinely your goal, take this page as background and speak to a firm that holds the right licence.

Before you trust any figure

Salary thresholds, fees, occupation lists and quotas in this area change at least annually, and often mid-year. This page deliberately describes the structure rather than printing numbers that would quietly go stale. For current figures, always read uscis.gov and travel.state.gov directly — not an agent's screenshot, and not this page.

7 items

Documents you need

  • A US employer willing to petition for you

    You cannot self-petition for H-1B or L-1. The company carries the filing.

  • A specialty occupation and matching degree for H-1B

    The role must normally require at least a bachelor’s degree in a specific field, and your degree must match.

  • Selection in the H-1B registration lottery where applicable

    Registration happens in a defined window each year. Selection is by chance among eligible registrations.

  • A certified Labor Condition Application

    Filed by the employer with the Department of Labor before the petition.

  • Qualifying relationship and role for L-1

    Employment with a related entity abroad for a qualifying period, in a managerial, executive or specialised-knowledge role.

  • Evidence of sustained acclaim for O-1

    A high evidentiary bar across defined criteria.

  • Consular interview in India

    After petition approval, at a US consulate, with the usual scrutiny of intent and documentation.

5 steps

How the process works

  1. Step 1

    Employer registers you in the H-1B lottery (if applicable)

    A short annual window; registration is not an application.

  2. Step 2

    If selected, employer files the petition with USCIS

    With the certified Labor Condition Application and supporting evidence.

  3. Step 3

    USCIS decision

    Premium processing can shorten the wait, at a fee the employer pays.

  4. Step 4

    You apply for the visa and attend the consular interview

    Approval of the petition does not guarantee visa issuance.

  5. Step 5

    Admission at the port of entry

    A CBP officer makes the final admission decision.

4 answers

Frequently asked questions

  • No. H-1B is filed by a US employer, and in any case we do not handle work visas — that requires an MEA Recruiting Agent licence we do not hold.

  • No. Selection is a random lottery among eligible registrations. Nobody can guarantee it, and multiple registrations by related employers for the same person are prohibited.

  • O-1 still needs a petitioner, though an agent-petitioner is possible in some fields. There is no general open work visa.

  • F-1 students may access practical training after their course under defined rules. That path begins with a study visa, which we can help you file.

A real way forward

Work visas aren’t our licence — a real route to United States is.

Employer-driven work visas need a separate licence we don't hold — so this page is information only. But if your real goal is to build a future in United States, we can help with a study route, a family route, or permanent residency where it exists. Talk to us and we'll map the honest path that actually works for you.

  • Honest route mapping

    We assess your profile and show you which United States pathway can realistically work for you.

  • A file built to win

    Study, family or PR — whichever route fits, we build and stress-test the documents properly.

  • One consultant, end to end

    The same person stays with your case from the first call to the decision.

  • Licensed & honest

    A Government-of-Punjab licensed consultancy. We never take a case we believe will fail.

Contact us

licensed (No. 849/DC/PTA/PLA/LC-3/2024)Fixed fees agreed upfrontWe won’t take a case we believe will fail

Other United States visas

Before you pay anyone for a United States work permit

Only a firm holding an MEA Recruiting Agent licence may recruit you for overseas employment. That register is public, and checking it takes about a minute — it is the single thing that separates a legitimate agent from the people this route is famous for.

  • Ask for the RA licence number and look it up on the Ministry of External Affairs’ own eMigrate portal. A genuine agent will give it without being pushed.
  • A licensed agent’s fee is capped by law and receipted. Nobody legitimate asks for cash with no paperwork.
  • No agent can promise you a job offer, and an offer letter that arrives before any interview is the oldest warning sign there is.
  • Never hand over your original passport. Not to them, and not to us.

For information only — we do not handle work permits. Lifeset Overseas does not process work permits for United States or any other country: that requires an MEA Recruiting Agent licence under the Emigration Act, which we do not hold. Our licence (No. 849/DC/PTA/PLA/LC-3/2024) covers visa consultancy and travel services. We can explain how this route works and how to check somebody who says they can do it — we cannot apply for it on your behalf, and we will not take a fee for trying.

Most people who ask us about work permits are really asking about something else.

A course with a post-study work route often reaches the same place, legally, through a door we can open for you — and it is a route nobody can take your money for and disappear. If you tell us what you are actually trying to achieve, we will tell you honestly whether that fits, including when it does not.

Ask about study or PR routes

Or read the study visa route first — no phone number required.