Employment-Based Green Cards - Application Process

After you have actually received a suitable job deal from a U.S. employer (if you need a job offer under your potential classification of legal long-term residence), getting a U.S. green card is a multistage process. Here, we'll provide an introduction.

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

Exceptional Case: Looking 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 short, making an application 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, utilizing the online FLAG system. The PWD is the Department of Labor's formal judgment regarding how much money is normally paid to people in tasks like the one you've been offered. The PWD will usually expire within a year or less, so it will be essential to recruit for and file the PERM labor accreditation quickly after the PWD is provided.
- Your employer advertises and recruits for the job you have actually been used and eventually identifies (in excellent faith) that there are no qualified U.S. workers offered and happy to take the job.
- Your employer files a PERM labor certification application online, utilizing the electronic USDOL Form 9089.
- You wait the numerous months that the DOL will require to adjudicate the PERM labor job certification application, and mail the licensed PERM application to your company (this time frame can extend as much as a year if the DOL picks your PERM application for audit).
- Within 180 days of the PERM labor certification approval, your company prepares and submits a petition using Form I-140, job released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
- After USCIS approves the petition, you wait till a visa is offered. It may be right away offered, if the variety of individuals who applied in your category in that exact same year is less than the variety of visas offered; or if too many individuals applied, then you may have to wait up until your Priority Date ends up being current. (Get information on monitoring your Priority Date.).
- You submit a permit application and pay the fees, either utilizing USCIS Form I-485 to "change status," which ultimately consists of an interview at a local immigration workplace near your home, or by completing a number of steps to ultimately have an interview at a U.S. consulate outside of the U.S. (through what is called "consular processing"). Which treatment you utilize depends on where you are living now, and if you are in the U.S., whether you are legally present or job otherwise eligible to change status. (For detailed details on these procedures, see Getting a Permit: Consular Processing vs. Adjustment of Status.).
- If your interview is at a consulate, after approval you get in the U.S. with your immigrant visa, at which time you end up being a permanent citizen. Your permit will show up by mail several weeks later on.

Note that in cases when there is no stockpile in your green card category (and job everyone's concern date is existing according to the Department of State's most current Visa Bulletin), you can send your I-485 application together with your company's I-140 petition. If you're following the consular processing alternative, you'll require to wait for 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 certification, then you will not need to follow all of the steps outlined above.

You or your company will just file the USCIS Form I-140 immigrant petition straight with the USCIS Service Center and, once it's authorized, either submit a Kind I-485 green card application with USCIS (if you are legally present within the United States and qualified to change status) or 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 job Children of Employee

If you're wed or have kids below the age of 21 and you receive a green card through employment, your spouse and children can get green cards as accompanying family members. They will need to provide proof of their household relationship to you, such as marital relationship or birth certificates.