Employment-Based Green Cards – Application Process

After you have received an ideal job deal from a U.S. company (if you need a job offer under your potential classification of lawful permanent house), getting a U.S. green card is a multistage procedure. Here, we’ll provide an overview.

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

Exceptional Case: Obtaining 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 quick, applying for job a work based green card includes these actions:

– Your potential employer 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 of Labor’s formal ruling as to how much cash is typically paid to people in tasks like the one you’ve been offered. The PWD will generally expire within a year or less, so it will be very important to recruit for and submit the PERM labor certification soon after the PWD is released.
– Your company promotes and recruits for the task you’ve been used and eventually figures out (in great faith) that there are no certified U.S. employees readily available and happy to take the task.
– Your employer submits a PERM labor accreditation application online, utilizing 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 accredited PERM application to your company (this time frame can extend as much as a year if the DOL selects your PERM application for audit).
– Within 180 days of the PERM labor accreditation approval, your company prepares and submits a petition utilizing Form I-140, provided by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
– After USCIS authorizes the petition, you wait till a visa is readily available. It may be right away available, if the number of individuals who used in your classification because very same year is less than the number of visas available; or if too many individuals applied, then you may need to wait until your Priority Date ends up being existing. (Get info on monitoring your Priority Date.).
– You submit a green card application and pay the charges, either utilizing USCIS Form I-485 to “change status,” which ultimately consists of an interview at a local migration office near your home, job or by finishing several steps to ultimately have an interview at a U.S. consulate beyond the U.S. (through what is called “consular processing”). Which treatment you utilize depends upon where you are living now, and if you remain in the U.S., whether you are legally present or otherwise eligible to adjust status. (For detailed information on these procedures, job 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 resident. Your permit will get here by mail numerous weeks later on.

Note that in cases when there is no backlog in your green card category (and everybody’s top priority date is current according to the Department of State’s most current Visa Bulletin), you can send your I-485 application along with your employer’s I-140 petition. If you’re following the consular processing alternative, you’ll need to await I-140 approval from USCIS before preparing your documents for the visa interview abroad.

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

If you receive an immigrant visa classification that does not require labor accreditation, then you will not need to follow all of the actions laid out above.

You or your company will just submit the USCIS Form I-140 immigrant petition directly with the USCIS Service Center and, once it’s authorized, either submit a Form I-485 permit application with USCIS (if you are lawfully present within the United States and qualified to change status) or wait for guidelines 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 qualify for a permit through work, your spouse and children can get permits as accompanying family members. They will need to provide proof of their family relationship to you, job such as marital relationship or birth certificates.