After you have received an appropriate job deal from a U.S. employer (if you require a task offer under your potential category of legal permanent home), 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 quick, using for an employment based green card involves these steps:

- Your potential employer 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 ruling as to just how much money is generally paid to individuals in tasks like the one you've been offered. The PWD will typically expire within a year or less, so it will be very important to recruit for and submit the PERM labor accreditation not long after the PWD is issued.
- Your employer promotes and recruits for the job you've been offered and eventually determines (in great faith) that there are no qualified U.S. workers available and going to take the job.
- Your employer submits a PERM labor certification application online, using 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 chooses your PERM application for audit).
- Within 180 days of the PERM labor accreditation approval, your employer prepares and submits a petition using Form I-140, issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
- After USCIS authorizes the petition, you wait till a visa is readily available. It might be immediately readily available, if the variety of individuals who applied in your category because very same year is less than the variety of visas offered; or if a lot of people used, then you might need to wait until your Priority Date ends up being existing. (Get details on monitoring your Priority Date.).
- You file a green card application and pay the costs, either using USCIS Form I-485 to "change status," which eventually includes an interview at a local migration office near your home, or by completing a number of steps to ultimately have an interview at a U.S. consulate beyond the U.S. (through what is called "consular processing"). Which treatment you use depends upon where you are living now, and if you remain in the U.S., whether you are lawfully present or otherwise qualified to change status. (For detailed information on these treatments, 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 an irreversible citizen. Your green card will arrive by mail a number of weeks later on.

Note that in cases when there is no backlog in your permit classification (and everyone's concern date is present according to the Department of State's latest Visa Bulletin), you can send your I-485 application in addition to your employer's I-140 petition. If you're following the consular processing choice, 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 need to follow all of the actions detailed above.

You or your employer will just submit the USCIS Form I-140 immigrant petition straight with the USCIS Service Center and, once it's approved, either submit a Kind I-485 permit application with USCIS (if you are legally present within the United States and eligible to adjust status) or await 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 employment Children of Employee

If you're wed or have children listed below the age of 21 and you receive a permit through work, your partner and kids can get green cards as accompanying family members. They will need to offer evidence of their family relationship to you, such as marital relationship or birth certificates.