Employment-Based Green Cards – Application Process

After you have received an ideal job offer from a U.S. employer (if you need a job offer under your potential classification of legal permanent residence), getting a U.S. green card is a multistage process. Here, we’ll provide an introduction.

Basic Steps to Receiving U.S. Lawful Permanent Residence Based on Employment

Exceptional Case: Looking For a U.S. Lawful Permanent Residence Without Labor Certification

Lawful Permanent Residence for Spouse and Children of Employee

Basic Steps to Receiving U.S. Lawful Permanent Residence Based Upon Employment

In brief, requesting a work based green card includes these actions:

– Your prospective company demands what’s called a prevailing wage determination (PWD) from the U.S. Department of Labor, utilizing the online FLAG system. The PWD is the Department of Labor’s official ruling regarding how much money is normally paid to people in tasks like the one you’ve been provided. The PWD will normally expire within a year or employment less, so it will be very important to hire for and file the PERM labor accreditation soon after the PWD is released.
– Your company markets and hires for the job you have actually been used and eventually determines (in good faith) that there are no competent U.S. employees available and going to take the task.
– Your employer submits a PERM labor accreditation application online, using the electronic USDOL Form 9089.
– You wait the a number of months that the DOL will take to adjudicate the PERM labor accreditation application, and mail the licensed PERM application to your employer (this time frame can extend as much as a year if the DOL picks your PERM application for audit).
– Within 180 days of the PERM labor accreditation approval, your employer prepares and submits a petition using Form I-140, released by U.S. Citizenship and employment Immigration Services (USCIS).
– After USCIS approves the petition, you wait until a visa is available. It might be instantly readily available, if the number of individuals who applied in your category in that same year is less than the variety of visas readily available; or if too many individuals applied, employment then you might need to wait till your Priority Date becomes current. (Get information on monitoring your Priority Date.).
– You file a green card application and pay the charges, either using USCIS Form I-485 to “adjust status,” which eventually consists of an interview at a regional migration workplace near your home, or employment by finishing numerous steps to eventually have an interview at a U.S. consulate beyond the U.S. (through what is called “consular processing”). Which treatment you utilize depends on where you are living now, and if you remain in the U.S., whether you are lawfully present or otherwise qualified to change status. (For detailed details on these treatments, see Getting a Green Card: vs. Adjustment of Status.).
– If your interview is at a consulate, after approval you enter the U.S. with your immigrant visa, at which time you become an irreversible homeowner. Your green card will get here by mail several weeks later.

Note that in cases when there is no backlog in your permit category (and everybody’s priority date is present according to the Department of State’s latest Visa Bulletin), you can submit your I-485 application together with your employer’s I-140 petition. If you’re following the consular processing choice, employment you’ll need to await I-140 approval from USCIS before preparing your documents for the visa interview abroad.

Exceptional Case: Applying for a U.S. Lawful Permanent Residence Without Labor Certification

If you get approved for an immigrant visa classification that does not need labor certification, then you will not need to follow all of the actions described above.

You or employment your employer will merely submit the USCIS Form I-140 immigrant petition straight with the USCIS Service Center and, once it’s authorized, either file a Form I-485 permit application with USCIS (if you are lawfully present within the United States and eligible to change status) or await instructions from the National Visa Center (NVC) to prepare you for a visa interview at a U.S. embassy abroad.

Lawful Permanent Residence for Spouse and Children of Employee

If you’re wed or have kids listed below the age of 21 and you receive a green card through employment, your spouse and children can get permits as accompanying loved ones. They will need to offer evidence of their family relationship to you, employment such as marital relationship or birth certificates.