Employment-Based Green Cards - Application Process

After you have received an appropriate task offer from a U.S. company (if you need a task deal under your prospective category of lawful permanent house), getting a U.S. green card is a multistage process. Here, we'll supply a summary.

Basic Steps to Receiving U.S. Lawful Permanent Residence Based on Employment
Exceptional Case: Requesting 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, making an application for a work based green card involves these steps:

- Your potential company requests what's called a fundamental wage decision (PWD) from the U.S. Department of Labor, utilizing 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 jobs like the one you've been provided. The PWD will normally end within a year or less, so it will be very important to hire for and file the PERM labor accreditation right after the PWD is provided. - Your company markets and hires for the task you have actually been used and ultimately determines (in good faith) that there are no certified U.S. workers available and happy to take the job. - Your company 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 licensed 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 certification approval, your employer prepares and submits a petition utilizing Form I-140, provided by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). - After USCIS approves the petition, you wait till a visa is offered. It might be immediately offered, if the variety of individuals who used in your category in that same year is less than the number of visas readily available; or if too lots of individuals used, then you may have to wait until your Priority Date becomes present. (Get info on monitoring your Priority Date.). - You submit a green card application and pay the costs, either using USCIS Form I-485 to "change status," which ultimately includes an interview at a regional immigration office near your home, or employment by finishing a number of 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 are in the U.S., whether you are lawfully present or otherwise eligible to adjust 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 go into the U.S. with your immigrant visa, at which time you end up being an irreversible homeowner. Your green card will get here by mail numerous weeks later on.

Note that in cases when there is no stockpile in your permit classification (and everyone's top priority date is current according to the Department of State's latest Visa Bulletin), you can send your I-485 application together with your employer's I-140 petition. If you're following the option, you'll need to wait on 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 Certification

If you certify for an immigrant visa category that does not need labor accreditation, then you will not need to follow all of the actions described above.

You or your employer will merely 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 permit application with USCIS (if you are legally present within the United States and qualified to change status) or employment wait for 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 wed or have kids listed below the age of 21 and you get approved for a green card through work, your spouse and kids can get permits as accompanying loved ones. They will need to supply proof of their family relationship to you, such as marriage or birth certificates.