If you decide to hire a national for domestic help, you will need to go through an immigration process to ensure that your worker is authorized to work in the US. Ultimately, you can apply for a US green card through an immigration petition with the USCIS for your employee.
The first half of the process is to find a qualified household domestic worker. This person must have at least one year of experience in order to qualify for a US green card and immigration to the US. You must also be able to prove to the USCIS that the employment offered to the worker is necessary for business. That is, you cannot simply hire a domestic worker to help you around the house and apply to the USCIS for an immigration petition for that worker. You must also be willing to offer that worker a permanent, full-time position in the US. In order to apply for immigration petition on behalf of the worker, you will generally have to prove all of this through documentation as well. Therefore, you’ll want to get all this information in writing. You will also need to have enough financial resources to pay for the worker.
Once you have found a domestic worker that you would like to petition for a US green card or immigration to the US, you must apply and receive labor certification from The Department of Labor. You can do this by filing Form ETA 750 (Labor Certification Request) and Form I-140 (Petition for Alien Worker). Once you have the certification and once the worker is qualified to work in the US, you can then hire that worker on a full-time and permanent basis. You can also apply to sponsor the worker for a US green card.
Once you have applied for an immigration petition on behalf of your employee and have received this authorization, you must ensure that you pay your domestic worker legally. You must also ensure that any income and payroll taxes for that worker are paid. It is a good idea to create a strong paper trail so that you can prove wages and payment, as needed. If your worker does not have a Social Security Number, you can apply with the IRS for a temporary identification number. Once this is secured, you may wish to complete the US green card application and Social Security number application. It is important to ensure that the pay is legal and that income taxes are paid. If the wages are not recorded and taxes are not paid, your domestic worker may be denied a US green card.