There are five major categories of Employment-Based (EB) immigrant visas for US permanent residency and each category has its own eligibility requirements. Every year, approximately 140,000 permanent resident visas (and Green Cards) are issued through these Employment-Based programs. Some of these US immigration visas require that the foreign worker first receive a genuine offer of employment in the United States (i.e., to be sponsored by an employer in the USA), while others do not require a US job offer in advance.