R140,000 Green Cards are available annually for skilled and
unskilled workers seeking to obtain permanent residence. These
are distributed through an employment-based preference system
which is divided into five categories.
The first preference (or EB-1) category is reserved for Multinational Managers and Executives, Employees of “Extraordinary
Ability” and “Outstanding” Researchers or Professors. The second
preference (EB-2) category covers those positions which require
at least a Master’s degree or a Bachelor’s degree and 5 years of
experience. It also includes employees who can demonstrate
“Exceptional Ability.” An E-2 applicant’s work may also be of such
national importance as to warrant a “National Interest Waiver,”
which would exempt them from the labor certification process
described below.
The third preference (EB-3) category is the most common category
utilized by about 80% of all employment-based immigrants. This
category is for positions requiring a Bachelor’s degree and less than
5 years of experience, or positions requiring no degree and at least 2
years of experience. There is also an “unskilled worker” subcategory
for positions requiring no experience whatsoever.
The EB-4 category for Special Immigrants and Religious Workers
and the EB-5 category for Immigrant Investors seeking to invest
between $500,000 and $1,000,000 in a U.S. business are the most
rarely used of the employment based immigrant visa categories.
Most employees seeking Permanent Residence are already in the
US in a non-immigrant visa status. Typically they are here in H-1B
status or L-1 status (either as L-1A managers or L-1B specialized
knowledge employees). While those who are in L-1A status may
qualify to upgrade to EB-1 multi-national manager status, most
employees cannot demonstrate extraordinary or exceptional ability,
and ultimately fall into either the EB-2 or EB-3 category. Current
immigration law requires that an employer demonstrate that
there are no qualified available American workers before they can
sponsor a worker employed under a temporary non-immigrant
visa for a green card. This process is known as labor certification
and all cases processed in the EB-2 and EB-3 category are subject to
it, except for those qualifying for a National Interest Waiver in the
EB-2 category noted above.
To demonstrate that no qualified American exists, an employer
follows the PERM rules, which require that the employer advertise
and recruit extensively under complex and detailed regulations.
If no U.S. worker is found as a result of this recruitment, the
employer can then file an electronic PERM application with the
U.S. Department of Labor, which takes from 3 months to 2 years
to be processed. Once PERM is approved, the employer then files
an immigrant petition with USCIS to establish which preference
category the job qualifies under. Based on the number of available
visas in that preference category there may or may not be a waiting
list which may cause further delay in processing the individual’s
green card case.
In addition to limitations on available visas per category, there are
also per country limitations which often result in long waiting lists
for individuals from countries like India and China where there
is high demand for green card processing particularly for highly
skilled professionals. The wait for individuals from these countries
even after a PERM approval has been achieved can sometimes be
as long as 6 to 8 years! Not until a visa number is actually available
can an employee file their application for adjustment to green card/
permanent resident status. Those filing in the EB-1, EB-4 and EB-5
category do not face such waits and can usually file the green card
application with the employer’s petition and usually obtain their
green cards within 12 to 18 months.
To initiate the green card process with our office, we suggest that
you contact us and discuss the details of the offered position and
the employee’s qualifications. We can then determine which of the
categories best suits the employee and present you with the best
strategy to move forward.