After you have actually received an ideal job deal from a U.S. employer (if you need a job deal under your potential category of legal permanent residence), getting a U.S. green card is a multistage procedure. 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, looking for an employment based green card includes these steps:

- Your prospective employer 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 regarding just how much cash is typically paid to people in jobs like the one you've been used. The PWD will usually expire within a year or less, so it will be very important to recruit for and submit the PERM labor employment certification quickly after the PWD is issued.
- Your employer promotes and hires for the job you've been offered and ultimately identifies (in excellent faith) that there are no certified U.S. workers offered and ready to take the task.
- Your employer files a PERM labor certification application online, utilizing 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 certified PERM application to your employer (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 accreditation approval, your company prepares and submits a petition utilizing Form I-140, released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
- After USCIS approves the petition, employment you wait up until a visa is offered. It might be immediately readily available, if the number of people who applied in your classification in that exact same year is less than the variety of visas available; or if too numerous people applied, then you may need to wait till your Priority Date becomes current. (Get details on monitoring your Priority Date.).
- You file a green card application and employment pay the fees, either utilizing USCIS Form I-485 to "adjust status," which eventually consists of an interview at a regional migration office near your home, or by finishing a number of 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 remain in the U.S., whether you are legally present or otherwise qualified 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 long-term local. Your green card will show up by mail numerous weeks later.

Note that in cases when there is no backlog in your permit classification (and everyone's concern date is current according to the Department of State's newest Visa Bulletin), you can submit your I-485 application along with your company's I-140 petition. If you're following the consular processing choice, you'll require to await 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 receive an immigrant visa classification that does not need labor certification, employment 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 file a Form I-485 green card application with USCIS (if you are lawfully present within the United States and eligible to adjust 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 Children of Employee

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