Employment-Based Green Cards – Application Process

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

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

Exceptional Case: employment 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 on Employment

In short, making an application for a work based permit involves these steps:

– Your prospective employer what’s called a prevailing wage determination (PWD) from the U.S. Department of Labor, using the online FLAG system. The PWD is the Department of Labor’s official judgment as to just how much cash is typically paid to individuals in tasks like the one you have actually been used. The PWD will usually end within a year or employment less, so it will be necessary to recruit for and file the PERM labor accreditation not long after the PWD is issued.
– Your employer promotes and recruits for the task you’ve been provided and eventually determines (in great faith) that there are no competent U.S. workers readily available and employment ready to take the task.
– Your company submits a PERM labor accreditation application online, utilizing the electronic USDOL Form 9089.
– You wait the numerous months that the DOL will require to adjudicate the PERM labor accreditation application, and mail the certified PERM application to your employer (this time frame can extend up to a year if the DOL picks your PERM application for audit).
– Within 180 days of the PERM labor accreditation approval, your company prepares and files a petition utilizing Form I-140, released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
– After USCIS approves the petition, you wait up until a visa is readily available. It might be instantly readily available, if the number of individuals who applied in your classification because exact same year is less than the variety of visas readily available; or if too many individuals applied, then you may have to wait up until your Priority Date ends up being current. (Get information on monitoring your Priority Date.).
– You file a permit application and pay the fees, either using USCIS Form I-485 to “change status,” which ultimately consists of an interview at a local migration workplace near your home, or by completing numerous steps to eventually have an interview at a U.S. consulate outside of the U.S. (through what is called “consular processing”). Which treatment you use depends upon where you are living now, and if you are in the U.S., whether you are lawfully present or otherwise qualified to change status. (For detailed details on these treatments, employment see Getting a Green Card: 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 an irreversible homeowner. Your permit will show up by mail a number of weeks later on.

Note that in cases when there is no backlog in your green card category (and everyone’s concern date is current according to the Department of State’s newest Visa Bulletin), you can send your I-485 application in addition to 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 the visa interview abroad.

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

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

You or your employer will just submit the USCIS Form I-140 immigrant petition straight with the USCIS Service Center and, once it’s approved, either submit a Type I-485 permit application with USCIS (if you are lawfully present within the United States and qualified 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 children listed below the age of 21 and you receive a green card through employment, your spouse and children can get green cards as accompanying relatives. They will require to supply evidence of their household relationship to you, such as marriage or birth certificates.