Employment-Based Green Cards - Application Process

After you have actually gotten an ideal task offer from a U.S. employer (if you require a task deal under your potential category of legal long-term residence), getting a U.S. permit is a multistage process. Here, we'll supply an overview.

Basic Steps to Receiving U.S. Lawful Permanent Residence Based Upon Employment
Exceptional Case: Making An Application 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, requesting an employment based green card involves these steps:

- Your potential 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 judgment as to just how much money is normally paid to individuals in tasks like the one you have actually been used. The PWD will generally expire within a year or less, so it will be essential to recruit for and file the PERM labor accreditation not long after the PWD is provided. - Your employer promotes and recruits for the job you have actually been provided and eventually identifies (in excellent faith) that there are no qualified U.S. employees available and going to take the task. - Your company submits a PERM labor accreditation 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 accredited PERM application to your company (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 employment accreditation approval, your employer prepares and submits a petition using Form I-140, provided by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). - After USCIS approves the petition, you wait until a visa is readily available. It may be right away offered, if the number of individuals who applied in your in that very same year is less than the variety of visas available; or if too numerous people used, then you might have to wait up until your Priority Date becomes current. (Get info on monitoring your Priority Date.). - You submit a permit application and pay the charges, either utilizing USCIS Form I-485 to "change status," which ultimately includes an interview at a local immigration 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 procedure you use depends upon where you are living now, and if you are in the U.S., whether you are legally present or otherwise eligible to change 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 become a permanent local. Your permit will arrive by mail numerous weeks later on.

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 newest Visa Bulletin), you can send your I-485 application along with your employer's I-140 petition. If you're following the consular processing option, you'll require to wait on I-140 approval from USCIS before preparing your documents for the visa interview abroad.

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

If you receive an immigrant visa category that does not need labor accreditation, then you will not require to follow all of the steps described above.

You or your company will merely file 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 eligible 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 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 spouse and kids can get green cards as accompanying relatives. They will need to supply evidence of their family relationship to you, such as marriage or birth certificates.