Employment-Based Green Cards – Application Process

After you have received an appropriate job deal from a U.S. company (if you require a job offer under your prospective category of lawful long-term residence), getting a U.S. permit is a multistage procedure. Here, we’ll supply a summary.

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

Exceptional Case: Looking For employment 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 quick, applying for a work based green card involves these steps:

– Your prospective employer requests 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 ruling as to how much money is usually paid to people in tasks like the one you have actually been offered. The PWD will typically end within a year or less, so it will be essential to hire for and file the PERM labor employment certification not long after the PWD is issued.
– Your company markets and recruits for the task you’ve been offered and ultimately figures out (in great faith) that there are no competent U.S. employees offered and ready to take the task.
– Your employer submits a PERM labor certification application online, utilizing the 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 company (this time frame can extend up to a year if the DOL selects your PERM application for audit).
– Within 180 days of the PERM labor certification approval, your employer prepares and files a petition using Form I-140, provided by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
– After USCIS authorizes the petition, you wait up until a visa is offered. It might be immediately offered, if the number of individuals who applied in your classification because very same year is less than the number of visas offered; or if a lot of people used, then you might need to wait till your Priority Date ends up being existing. (Get details on monitoring your Priority Date.).
– You submit a green card application and employment pay the fees, either using USCIS Form I-485 to “change status,” which eventually includes an interview at a regional immigration workplace near your home, or by completing a number of actions to ultimately have an interview at a U.S. consulate outside of the U.S. (through what is called “consular processing”). Which treatment you utilize depends on where you are living now, and if you are in the U.S., whether you are lawfully present or otherwise eligible to change status. (For detailed information on these procedures, 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 become an irreversible local. Your green card will get here by mail a number of weeks later on.

Note that in cases when there is no backlog in your green card classification (and everybody’s concern date is existing according to the Department of State’s latest Visa Bulletin), employment you can submit your I-485 application in addition to your employer’s I-140 petition. If you’re following the consular processing option, 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 certify for an immigrant visa category that does not need labor accreditation, then you will not need to follow all of the actions outlined above.

You or employment your employer will merely file the USCIS Form I-140 immigrant petition directly with the USCIS Service Center and, once it’s approved, either submit a Kind I-485 permit application with USCIS (if you are legally present within the United States and employment eligible to adjust 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 children below the age of 21 and you get approved for a green card through employment, employment your spouse and kids can get permits as accompanying relatives. They will require to offer evidence of their household relationship to you, such as marital relationship or birth certificates.