Employment-Based Green Cards – Application Process

After you have actually gotten an ideal task offer from a U.S. employer (if you need a job offer under your prospective classification of legal irreversible house), getting a U.S. green card is a multistage procedure. Here, we’ll supply an overview.

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

Exceptional Case: Applying 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 on Employment

In quick, getting an employment based green card includes these steps:

– Your prospective company 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 as to just how much money is typically paid to people in tasks like the one you have actually been provided. The PWD will generally expire within a year or less, so it will be essential to hire for and submit the PERM labor accreditation not long after the PWD is released.
– Your employer advertises and hires for the task you have actually been offered and ultimately figures out (in great faith) that there are no certified U.S. workers readily available and employment ready to take the task.
– Your employer submits a PERM labor certification application online, employment utilizing the electronic USDOL Form 9089.
– You wait the several months that the DOL will require to adjudicate the PERM labor employment certification application, and employment mail the licensed PERM application to your employer (this time frame can extend approximately a year if the DOL picks your PERM application for audit).
– Within 180 days of the PERM labor accreditation 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 until a visa is available. It may be immediately readily available, if the variety of people who used in your classification in that very same year is less than the number of visas available; or employment if a lot of people used, then you might need to wait till your Priority Date ends up being present. (Get details on monitoring your Priority Date.).
– You submit a permit application and pay the fees, either using USCIS Form I-485 to „adjust status,“ which eventually consists of an interview at a local migration workplace near your home, or by completing several steps to ultimately have an interview at a U.S. consulate beyond the U.S. (through what is called „consular processing“). Which treatment you use depends on where you are living now, and if you are in the U.S., whether you are legally present or otherwise qualified to change status. (For detailed information on these treatments, see Getting a Green Card: Consular Processing vs. Adjustment of Status.).
– If your interview is at a consulate, after you enter the U.S. with your immigrant visa, at which time you become a permanent homeowner. Your permit will show up by mail a number of weeks later on.

Note that in cases when there is no backlog in your permit category (and everyone’s concern date is present according to the Department of State’s most current Visa Bulletin), you can send your I-485 application together with your employer’s I-140 petition. If you’re following the consular processing alternative, you’ll need to wait on 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 qualify for an immigrant visa classification that does not require labor employment certification, then you will not need to follow all of the actions described above.

You or your employer will merely file the USCIS Form I-140 immigrant petition directly with the USCIS Service Center and, once it’s authorized, either file a Type I-485 green card application with USCIS (if you are legally present within the United States and qualified to adjust status) or await instructions 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 qualify for a green card through work, your partner and employment children can get green cards as accompanying loved ones. They will need to supply evidence of their household relationship to you, such as marriage or birth certificates.