Employment-Based Green Cards – Application Process

After you have actually received an ideal task offer from a U.S. employer (if you require a job deal under your prospective category of legal long-term residence), getting a U.S. green card is a multistage procedure. Here, we’ll provide a summary.

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

Exceptional Case: Getting 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, getting a work based green card includes these steps:

– Your prospective company demands what’s called a prevailing wage decision (PWD) from the U.S. Department of Labor, using the online FLAG system. The PWD is the Department of Labor’s official ruling regarding how much money is normally paid to individuals in tasks like the one you have actually been used. The PWD will usually end within a year or less, so it will be necessary to hire for and file the PERM labor accreditation right after the PWD is provided.
– Your employer markets and hires for the task you have actually been used and ultimately determines (in great faith) that there are no .S. workers offered 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 require to adjudicate the PERM labor certification application, and mail the certified PERM application to your company (this time frame can extend approximately a year if the DOL chooses your PERM application for audit).
– Within 180 days of the PERM labor accreditation approval, your company prepares and files a petition using Form I-140, released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
– After USCIS authorizes the petition, you wait until a visa is offered. It might be instantly readily available, if the number of individuals who used in your classification in that very same year is less than the variety of visas available; or if a lot of individuals used, then you might need to wait up until your Priority Date ends up being current. (Get information on monitoring your Priority Date.).
– You submit a green card application and pay the costs, either utilizing USCIS Form I-485 to “change status,” which eventually includes an interview at a regional migration office near your home, or by completing numerous actions 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., employment whether you are legally present or otherwise eligible to adjust status. (For detailed info on these treatments, 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 become a long-term homeowner. Your permit will get here by mail numerous weeks later on.

Note that in cases when there is no stockpile in your green card classification (and everyone’s priority date is current according to the Department of State’s newest Visa Bulletin), you can send your I-485 application in addition to your employer’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: Applying for employment a U.S. Lawful Permanent Residence Without Labor Certification

If you get approved for an immigrant visa category that does not require labor accreditation, then you will not require to follow all of the steps detailed above.

You or your company will simply submit the USCIS Form I-140 immigrant petition straight with the USCIS Service Center and, once it’s authorized, either file a Type I-485 green card application with USCIS (if you are lawfully present within the United States and employment qualified to change 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 married or have children listed below the age of 21 and you receive a permit through employment, employment your spouse and children can get permits as accompanying relatives. They will need to provide evidence of their family relationship to you, such as marital relationship or birth certificates.