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If one has the right combination of skills, education, and/or work experience and is otherwise eligible, he or she may be able to live permanently in the United States. If a foreign national has a job offer in the U.S., he or she may obtain a work visa, such as an H, L, or any other work visa, and that same employer may petition for their green card by following the process known as labor certification (PERM).
Every fiscal year (October 1st – September 30th), approximately 140,000 employment-based immigrant visas are made available to qualified applicants. Employment based immigrant visas are divided into five preference categories. Certain spouses and children may accompany or follow-to-join employment-based immigrants. To be considered for an immigrant visa under some of the employment-based categories below, the applicant's prospective employer or agent must first obtain a labor certification approval from the Department of Labor. When received, the employer then files an Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, Form I-140, with the USCIS for the appropriate employment-based preference category.
These employment-based (EB) “preference immigrant” categories include:
Employment First Preference (E1) Priority Workers, Employment Second Preference (E2): Professionals Holding Advanced Degrees and Persons of Exceptional Ability; Employment Third Preference (E3): Skilled Workers, Professionals, and unskilled workers (other workers); Employment Fourth Preference (E4): Certain Special Immigrants; Employment Fifth Preference (E5): Immigrant Investors.
Some immigrant visa preferences require a foreign national to already have a job offer from a U.S. employer. This employer will be considered a sponsor. For some visa categories, before the U.S. employer can submit an immigration petition to USCIS, the employer must obtain an approved labor certification from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The DOL labor certification verifies the following: that there are insufficient available, qualified, and willing U.S. workers to fill the position being offered at the prevailing wage, that hiring a foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.
If you need assistance with your immigration matter call us today at 347-536-8644 or fill out our Contact Form and a member of our team will be in touch with you shortly.