The standard advice — "get a US employer to sponsor you" — fails most people. The H-1B is a lottery, employer sponsorship binds you to one company, and whole categories of careers (founders, researchers, freelancers, artists) don't fit the mold at all.
But US immigration law contains several routes that require no employer whatsoever. Here they are, ranked by how many people they realistically fit.
1. EB-2 National Interest Waiver — the self-petition workhorse
The EB-2 NIW lets you petition for a green card yourself by showing your work has substantial merit and national importance, that you're well positioned to advance it, and that waiving the usual job-offer requirement benefits the United States.
Who actually wins NIWs: researchers, engineers, physicians, entrepreneurs, AI/biotech/clean-energy professionals — anyone whose work connects credibly to US national priorities. You need an advanced degree (or exceptional ability) and a coherent story, not a Nobel Prize.
Honest downsides: processing takes years rather than months (current timelines here), and applicants born in heavily backlogged countries face additional visa-queue waits.
2. EB-1A Extraordinary Ability — the higher bar, faster queue
The EB-1A is the NIW's demanding sibling: you must satisfy at least 3 of 10 criteria (major awards, published material about you, judging others' work, original contributions, high salary, and so on) and show you're at the top of your field.
Fewer people qualify, but those who do get the best deal in employment-based immigration: self-petitioned, no labor certification, and a priority date that's current far more often than EB-2. Strong candidates frequently file both EB-1A and NIW — see our EB-1A vs NIW comparison for how to sequence them.
3. EB-5 Investor — buying the queue position
The EB-5 requires investing $800,000+ (in a targeted employment area) into a job-creating US enterprise. No employer, no degree requirements, no extraordinary-ability evidence — the qualification is capital with a clean, documented source.
This is the right route for a narrow group: families with substantial liquid assets who want green cards for spouse and children under 21 in one filing. For business operators, compare it against the EB-1C multinational executive route first — if you actually run a company, EB-1C costs no investment at all.
4. The Diversity Visa lottery — free to enter, terrible to plan around
The DV lottery hands out ~55,000 green cards a year to applicants from low-immigration countries. Entry is free, requires only a high school education (or two years of skilled work), and takes ten minutes.
Enter it every single year — but treat it as a lottery ticket, not a plan. Odds vary by region from under 1% to a few percent. The serious mistake is waiting on DV results instead of building a real case in parallel.
5. Family sponsorship — the route people forget they have
A US-citizen spouse, parent, sibling, or adult child can petition for you (family routes here). Immediate relatives of citizens (spouses, parents, minor children) have no annual cap and no queue. Sibling sponsorship works but carries the longest waits in the entire system — often well over a decade.
If you have any qualifying family tie, check this route before investing in the others; it may be slower but it's the most certain.
What about the O-1?
The O-1 extraordinary-ability visa (as opposed to the EB-1A green card) technically needs a US petitioner, but that can be an agent — and for founders, your own startup. It's not a green card, but it's how many self-petition candidates work in the US while their EB-1A or NIW is pending. See how it stacks up against the H-1B in our comparison.
Choosing your route
The decision tree is shorter than it looks:
- Significant achievements in your field? → EB-1A, with NIW as the backup filing.
- Advanced degree + work tied to US national interests? → EB-2 NIW.
- $800k+ of documentable funds? → EB-5 (after ruling out EB-1C).
- Qualifying US-citizen relative? → Family sponsorship, possibly in parallel.
- Eligible country? → DV lottery every year, alongside whichever of the above fits.
Not sure which describes you? Get your free eligibility report — it scores you against all 16 US pathways, including the self-petition routes, in about five minutes.