Employment-Based Green Cards – Application Process

After you have received an ideal job offer from a U.S. employer (if you need a job deal under your prospective category of lawful long-term home), 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: Making An Application 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, obtaining an employment based green card includes these actions:

– Your prospective employer requests what’s called a fundamental wage determination (PWD) from the U.S. Department of Labor, utilizing the online FLAG system. The PWD is the Department of Labor’s official judgment regarding how much money is normally paid to people in jobs like the one you have actually been used. The PWD will typically end within a year or less, so it will be crucial to hire for and employment file the PERM labor accreditation quickly after the PWD is issued.
– Your company advertises and hires for the task you’ve been offered and ultimately determines (in good faith) that there are no competent U.S. employees available and happy to take the task.
– Your company submits a PERM labor accreditation application online, utilizing the electronic USDOL Form 9089.
– You wait the several months that the DOL will require to adjudicate the PERM labor accreditation application, and employment 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 certification approval, your employer prepares and submits a petition utilizing Form I-140, released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
– After USCIS approves the petition, you wait till a visa is offered. It might be immediately available, if the number of people who used in your classification because same year is less than the variety of visas offered; or if a lot of individuals applied, employment then you may need to wait till your Priority Date ends up being present. (Get information on monitoring your Priority Date.).
– You submit a permit application and pay the costs, either Form I-485 to “change status,” which eventually consists of an interview at a regional immigration workplace near your home, or by completing numerous actions to ultimately have an interview at a U.S. consulate beyond the U.S. (through what is called “consular processing”). Which procedure you utilize depends upon where you are living now, and if you are in the U.S., whether you are legally present or otherwise qualified to change status. (For detailed info on these treatments, see Getting a Permit: Consular Processing vs. Adjustment of Status.).
– If your interview is at a consulate, after approval you go into the U.S. with your immigrant visa, at which time you end up being a long-term citizen. Your green card will get here by mail a number of weeks later.

Note that in cases when there is no stockpile in your permit classification (and everybody’s concern date is existing according to the Department of State’s newest Visa Bulletin), you can send your I-485 application along with your company’s I-140 petition. If you’re following the consular processing choice, you’ll require to wait on I-140 approval from USCIS before preparing your files for employment the visa interview abroad.

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

If you certify for an immigrant visa category that does not need labor certification, then you will not require to follow all of the actions detailed above.

You or your employer will simply file the USCIS Form I-140 immigrant petition straight with the USCIS Service Center and, once it’s approved, either file a Kind I-485 permit application with USCIS (if you are lawfully present within the United States and eligible to adjust status) or wait for directions 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 married or have kids below the age of 21 and you get approved for a permit through employment, your spouse and children can get permits as accompanying relatives. They will need to supply evidence of their family relationship to you, such as marriage or birth certificates.