Employment-Based Green Cards – Application Process

After you have actually received a suitable task offer from a U.S. company (if you require a task offer under your potential classification of legal permanent home), getting a U.S. green card is a multistage process. Here, we’ll supply an overview.

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

Exceptional Case: 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 Upon Employment

In quick, applying for a work based green card involves these actions:

– Your prospective employer demands 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 formal ruling regarding how much money is typically paid to individuals 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 employment and submit the PERM labor accreditation right after the PWD is released.
– Your employer advertises and employment recruits for the task you have actually been offered and ultimately figures out (in excellent faith) that there are no qualified U.S. employees readily available and happy to take the task.
– Your employer submits a PERM labor accreditation application online, using 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 (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 certification approval, your company prepares and submits a petition using Form I-140, employment issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
– After USCIS approves the petition, you wait until a visa is offered. It might be instantly offered, if the variety of individuals who applied in your category in that exact same year is less than the variety of visas available; or if a lot of individuals used, then you might have to wait until your Priority Date becomes current. (Get details on monitoring your Priority Date.).
– You file a permit application and pay the fees, either utilizing USCIS Form I-485 to “adjust status,” which ultimately consists of an interview at a regional migration office 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 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 change status. (For detailed information on these procedures, see Getting a Green Card: Consular Processing vs. Adjustment of Status.).
– If your interview is at a consulate, after approval you get in the U.S. with your immigrant visa, at which time you end up being a permanent homeowner. Your green card will arrive by mail several weeks later.

Note that in cases when there is no stockpile in your permit category (and everybody’s concern date is current according to the Department of State’s most current Visa Bulletin), you can submit your I-485 application in addition to 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 files for the visa interview abroad.

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

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

You or your company will simply submit the USCIS Form I-140 immigrant petition directly with the USCIS Service Center and, once it’s approved, 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 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 employment Children of Employee

If you’re wed or have children 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 offer proof of their household relationship to you, such as marital relationship or birth certificates.