Employment-Based Green Cards – Application Process

After you have actually received a suitable task deal from a U.S. employer (if you need a task offer under your prospective classification of legal irreversible house), getting a U.S. green card is a multistage procedure. Here, employment we’ll offer a summary.

Basic Steps to Receiving U.S. Lawful Permanent Residence Based on 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 short, looking for an employment based green card involves these steps:

– Your potential 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 official judgment regarding just how much money is typically paid to people in tasks like the one you’ve been provided. The PWD will usually end within a year or less, so it will be crucial to hire for and submit the PERM labor accreditation soon after the PWD is released.
– Your company markets and recruits for the job you have actually been offered and ultimately determines (in good faith) that there are no competent U.S. workers available and going to take the job.
– Your employer files a PERM labor certification application online, using 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 licensed PERM application to your company (this time frame can extend approximately a year if the DOL picks your PERM application for audit).
– Within 180 days of the PERM labor certification approval, your company prepares and files a petition utilizing Form I-140, released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
– After USCIS approves the petition, you wait till a visa is available. It may be instantly readily available, if the variety of people who used in your category because very same year is less than the number of visas readily available; or if too lots of people applied, then you may have to wait until your Priority Date becomes existing. (Get details on your Priority Date.).
– You file a permit application and pay the fees, either using USCIS Form I-485 to « adjust status, » which ultimately includes an interview at a local migration workplace near your home, or by finishing several 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 are in the U.S., whether you are legally present or otherwise eligible to adjust 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 end up being a long-term citizen. Your green card will arrive by mail numerous weeks later.

Note that in cases when there is no stockpile in your green card category (and employment everyone’s priority date is existing according to the Department of State’s latest Visa Bulletin), you can send your I-485 application along with your company’s I-140 petition. If you’re following the consular processing choice, you’ll need to wait on I-140 approval from USCIS before preparing your documents for the visa interview abroad.

Exceptional Case: Obtaining 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 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 file a Form I-485 green card application with USCIS (if you are legally present within the United States and employment eligible to adjust 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 Children of Employee

If you’re married or have kids listed below the age of 21 and you certify for a green card through work, your spouse and children can get green cards as accompanying family members. They will require to provide evidence of their household relationship to you, employment such as marriage or birth certificates.