Which US Visa to Hire a Chef From Japan? E-2, L-1, O-1B or EB-3

Start with ownership. If Japanese nationals own at least half the restaurant, use the E-2. If your company runs a restaurant in Japan where the chef has worked for a year, look at the L-1. If neither applies, only a chef with a documented record of distinction fits the O-1B, and everyone else means an EB-3 green card that takes years. H-2B and J-1 do not staff a year round kitchen.

1. The decision table

Four facts decide the route: who owns the business, whether there is a related restaurant company abroad where the chef already works, what the chef's public record looks like, and whether you need the chef for a season or for good. Find the first row that is true for you.

Urgency changes the order only at the margin. If the restaurant opens in three months and you qualify for both E-2 and O-1B, file the one whose evidence is ready. If you qualify for neither, no amount of urgency creates a route.

2. Cost, time and length of stay

Government fees for one chef, the published parts of the timeline, and how long the status lasts. Attorney fees are extra and usually the largest cost.

Employers with 25 or fewer full time equivalent staff pay half the I-129 filing fee and US$300 instead of US$600 for the Asylum Program Fee. Salary is not a fee, but it decides cases: an E-2 or O-1B offer near the bottom of local pay undercuts the claim that the chef is rare. BLS puts the national median for chefs and head cooks at US$62,470 (May 2025); see US prevailing wage for chefs for local figures.

3. What is realistically closed

• H-2B for a year round kitchen. The employer must show a need that ends in the near, definable future, generally within a year. A permanent sushi counter is not that. Japan's H-2B eligibility is also unconfirmed: the last designation we could verify ran to 8 November 2025, and we found no later notice.
• J-1 as staffing. The rules forbid programs that replace ordinary employment, and the State Department's list of unskilled occupations names "cooks, short order" and "kitchen workers".
• H-1B for a chef. H-1B needs a specialty occupation, normally a job that requires a bachelor's degree. BLS lists a high school diploma plus five years' experience as the typical path into chef and head cook roles, so a kitchen job rarely fits, and there is a lottery.
• E-2 for a non Japanese chef. The employee must share the owners' nationality. A Japanese owned restaurant cannot bring a Korean or Thai chef on its E-2.
• EB-3 as a way to start soon. It is a sound route for keeping a chef, and a poor one for opening next quarter.

4. Temporary now, green card later

Most restaurants that keep a chef for years end up using two routes: a temporary status to get the chef working, and EB-3 started early so the queue runs while the chef works. The two do not have to match. An E-2 holder must intend to leave when the status ends, but the regulation says an E application cannot be refused solely because a labor certification or immigrant petition has been filed. Plan the sequence with counsel before you file. The stages and the waiting arithmetic are in US green card timeline for chefs.

5. The brief to send your attorney

Attorneys quote faster and more accurately when the first email answers the questions that decide the route. Copy this, fill it in, attach the documents.

6. What to do this week

1. Write down your ownership table, including each owner's nationality and US immigration status.
2. Find your row in the decision table.
3. Ask the chef for employment certificates and any press or awards now, whatever the route; every route needs them. The list is in what a chef must prepare in Japan.
4. Send the brief above to two immigration attorneys and compare the routes they propose.

General information checked against official sources on 27 September 2026, not legal or immigration advice. Each category has detailed evidence requirements. Use an experienced US immigration attorney before filing.