Employment-Based Green Cards – Application Process

After you have actually received an appropriate job offer from a U.S. company (if you require a task deal under your potential category of legal irreversible residence), 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 Upon Employment

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

Lawful Permanent Residence for Spouse and Children of

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

In short, getting a work based permit includes these steps:

– Your potential employer requests 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 formal judgment as to how much money is usually paid to people in jobs like the one you’ve been offered. The PWD will typically end within a year or less, so it will be essential to recruit for and submit the PERM labor certification not long after the PWD is released.
– Your company markets and hires for the task you have actually been used and eventually determines (in great faith) that there are no qualified U.S. workers available and going to take the task.
– Your employer files a PERM labor certification application online, utilizing the electronic USDOL Form 9089.
– You wait the a number of months that the DOL will require to adjudicate the PERM labor accreditation application, and mail the accredited PERM application to your employer (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 employer prepares and submits a petition using Form I-140, provided by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
– After USCIS authorizes the petition, employment you wait until a visa is offered. It may be instantly offered, if the number of people who applied in your category in that same year is less than the number of visas offered; or if too lots of people used, then you might have to wait until your Priority Date becomes present. (Get information on monitoring your Priority Date.).
– You submit a permit application and pay the fees, employment either utilizing USCIS Form I-485 to «change status,» which ultimately consists of an interview at a regional immigration office near your home, or 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 upon where you are living now, and if you remain in the U.S., whether you are legally present or otherwise qualified to adjust status. (For detailed info on these procedures, see Getting a Green Card: Consular Processing 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 a permanent citizen. Your green card will show up by mail a number of weeks later.

Note that in cases when there is no stockpile in your green card category (and everyone’s concern date is present according to the Department of State’s latest 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 need to wait for I-140 approval from USCIS before preparing your files for the visa interview abroad.

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

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

You or employment your company will simply submit the USCIS Form I-140 immigrant petition directly with the USCIS Service Center and, once it’s authorized, either file a Type I-485 permit application with USCIS (if you are lawfully present within the United States and eligible to adjust status) or await 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 wed or have kids below the age of 21 and you qualify for a green card through employment, your partner and children can get green cards as accompanying family members. They will need to supply proof of their household relationship to you, such as marital relationship or birth certificates.