Employment Based Green Cards
One
of the methods by which many people become lawful permanent residents of the
United States is what is known as "employment based immigration." This
involves demonstrating that the applicant has valuable work skills that will
benefit the country.
In most cases, the foreign national requires sponsorship by an employer. The only "self-petition" categories available are the employment based first (EB1) "extraordinary ability" and employment based second (EB2), "national interest waiver" petitions. All others require employer sponsorship.
Within this remaining group, but for two exceptions ("outstanding professors and researchers" and "multinational executives and managers") the employer must file an individual foreign labor certification. This process is known by the acronym "PERM" (permanent electronic records management). The PERM process can be quite involved.
Irrespective of whether a foreign labor certification is required, all employment based immigrants must file, or have filed on their behalf, an immigrant preference petition — form I-140. Approval of this petition is significant for several reasons: It perfects the applicant's priority date; It confirms the applicant's immigrant preference classification; and it makes the applicant eligible to apply for immigrant status as soon as his or her priority is "current."
Unless and until an I-140 petition has been approved, the beneficiary of the petition only has an expectation of a specific priority date. After the I-140 petition has been approved, the priority date vests and the employee "owns" it forever, unless it is revoked by the USCIS for fraud or mistake. If an employer withdraws an approved I-140, the beneficiary remains entitled to that priority date for all subsequently filed I-140 petitions for any job, by any employer, and in any of the first three employment based preferences.
In many cases, a person with an established employment based preference priority date (such as an EB3 beneficiary) will want to "upgrade" to a higher preference classification. This may be possible, depending upon the unique facts and circumstances presented.
