Moving to the US: H-1B, green cards, and the chargeability advantage

The United States is the most famous immigration door on earth — and, for most of the world, the least predictable. Work visas run on a lottery. Green cards run on queues measured in years. Since September 2025, one category of new H-1B filings has even carried a $100,000 payment. And yet, for professionals born in Hong Kong or Taiwan, the biggest American bottleneck barely exists: employment-based green cards are rationed by country of birth, and while mainland-China-born and India-born applicants wait in the longest lines, Hong Kong SAR-born and Taiwan-born applicants charge to separate, far shorter lines. This guide walks both layers — work visa, then green card — and shows where the advantage bites.

This guide is educational only — rules change, so treat the official sources linked below as the authority before you act.

The work-visa layer: H-1B and its $100,000 reality

H-1B is the classic American work visa: a "specialty occupation" requiring a relevant degree, petitioned by an employer, rationed by an annual lottery whose electronic registration opens each spring, typically in March. The draw decides who may even file.

There is now a second gate for people filing from abroad. A Presidential Proclamation of 19 September 2025, effective 21 September, requires certain new H-1B petitions — those for beneficiaries outside the United States who do not hold a valid H-1B visa — to include an additional $100,000 payment made through pay.gov. USCIS guidance from 20 October 2025 set out exemptions: people already in the US in valid status, and ordinary extensions or amendments, generally do not trigger it. Then, on 8 June 2026, a federal district court vacated the guidance implementing the payment (State of California v. Mullin); DHS says it will comply with the order while it considers next steps, and collection could resume if the ruling is lifted. As of October 2026 the offshore H-1B route is real but legally unstable — plan on the current wording of the USCIS H-1B page, not on forum threads.

Around the lottery: L-1 and O-1

Two doors skip the lottery entirely. L-1 moves managers and specialized-knowledge staff within a multinational, generally after about a year with the group abroad in the last three. O-1 is for people of extraordinary ability in science, business, arts, or sport, evidenced by a record of leading work. Both are narrower than H-1B, but both lead to the same green-card layer.

The green-card layer: EB-2 and EB-3

The main employment-based green cards for professionals are EB-2 (advanced degree or exceptional ability) and EB-3 (professionals and skilled workers). The standard path is employer sponsorship: a supervised test of the US labor market (the PERM labor certification), then the immigrant petition, then the green card itself, once a visa number is available. That last step is where country of birth decides how long you wait.

The chargeability advantage: the queue HK/TW-born applicants skip

Employment-based green cards are rationed by country of "chargeability" — your place of birth, not your passport. Mainland-China-born and India-born applicants face the longest EB-2/EB-3 backlogs in the system — lines that stretch for years. But the State Department's monthly Visa Bulletin lists Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan as separate chargeability areas, and in the bulletins published through late 2025 and 2026 their EB-2 and EB-3 cut-offs have generally sat at or near "current" — an approved petition can move toward a green card without a long queue. For a Hong Kong-born or Taiwan-born engineer, that can mean years less waiting than a mainland-born colleague with an identical CV. Cut-offs move monthly — check the current bulletin before building any timeline.

EB-2 NIW: the self-petition door

The National Interest Waiver is a route inside EB-2 that skips both the employer and the PERM process: you petition for yourself. The test, from the 2016 precedent decision Matter of Dhanasar, has three prongs: your proposed endeavor must have substantial merit and national importance; you must be well positioned to advance it; and, on balance, the United States must benefit from waiving the normal job-offer and labor-certification requirements. No lottery, no sponsor — and because it is EB-2, the chargeability advantage applies in full. The details are on USCIS's EB-2 page.

The student runway: F-1 → OPT → H-1B

The standard sequence for younger applicants: F-1 study, then Optional Practical Training — up to 12 months of work authorization after graduation, extendable by a 24-month STEM extension for eligible degrees. That window is the bridge into H-1B lottery registration or, for a strong profile, a direct green-card petition. We unpack the whole study-then-work pattern in our study-to-PR guide.

The doors at a glance

An honest close

America combines lottery luck, heavy fees and, right now, live litigation. What rebalances it for Hong Kong and Taiwan-born professionals is structure: a chargeability line that actually moves, and a self-petition green card for those who can evidence their case. If the numbers never fit, the investor door (EB-5) exists, but read our golden-visa reality check first — and the quieter alternatives, Canada and Australia, reward the same CV without the dice.

Related reading

• How to choose your emigration route — the five-door framework if you are still comparing countries
• Canada's pathways for HK/TW applicants — the more predictable North American door
• Australia's points-tested skilled migration — a system that rewards the same CV without a lottery
• Why visa applications fail — the boring, preventable failure modes in any application