The search for equity and better working conditions has increasingly motivated foreign women to seek legal immigration to the United States. Currently, 52% of the immigrant community in America are women. According to the American Immigration Council, more than 23 million female immigrants are in the U.S., accounting for about 16% of the workforce of all women employed in the country.
Although Mexico, India, China and the Philippines are still the leading countries regarding female immigrants in America, The U.S. has issued more than 59,000 green cards to Brazilian women in the last decade (2011 to 2020). This a very different scenario from the 1980s and 1990s, when almost 70% of immigrants from Brazil were male.
According to the U.S. Immigration attorney Marcelo Gondim, it is not only in quantity that Brazilian ladies have been standing out in the USA, but also as high-skilled immigrants: “In the last five years, the professional and academic qualification (usually a higher education degree and complementary professional courses) of many Brazilian women has been essential for them to be able to hold well-paid positions in professional areas that require specific technical knowledge, such as medicine, dentistry, nursing, physiotherapy, engineering, I.T., and many other areas where there is a significant shortage of skilled labor in the U.S.”
Also, the number of Brazilian women who are entrepreneurs opening companies and investing in the U.S. is increasing, especially in the clothing, aesthetics, health and food industries, with Florida being the leading region for these businesses. Whether to work in a company or start a business, Brazilian female immigrants find excellent professional and business opportunities and much fewer bureaucracy and barriers than they find to ascend their careers in Brazil.
“Women’s empowerment in the United States is not a new subject. About 30% of the companies currently based in the country were founded or are currently led by women. In our office, we increasingly have female clients who have job offers for various professions and also for executive positions (C-Level) in U.S. multinationals,” – Explained Marcelo Gondim, who founded Gondim Law Corp, an immigration law firm from Los Angeles, which has already represented thousands of Brazilian clients in their green card processes.
For qualified Brazilians who dream of legally living and working in the U.S., Marcelo Gondim leaves an optimistic message: “In the U.S., there are several immigration categories that grant the green card to immigrants well qualified for their professions and academic backgrounds, such as the EB-2 NIW and EB-3, for example. But Brazilians willing to join the U.S. labor market must consult a lawyer who specializes and is licensed in immigration in the U.S. to learn which immigration category best fits their profiles and then start planning for a future with better opportunities in the U.S.”
About the specialist: Marcelo Gondim
Marcelo Gondim is an immigration lawyer in the United States with more than ten years of experience in green cards and U.S. visa processes. He is licensed by the State of Florida to practice immigration law in the entire U.S. Marcelo was born in Brazil but also held American citizenship. He is the founder and principal attorney at Gondim Law Corp., an immigration law firm based in Los Angeles. Increases the number of female immigrants in the United States