Faculty PERM Applications

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Tenure track faculty members enjoy special privileges when processing for lawful immigrant status in the United States. Unlike all other employment-based immigrants who require individual labor certification, faculty member receive preferential treatment in two important ways.

First, rather than go through the detailed individual labor certification recruiting procedures required in all other cases, university sponsors may rely on the recruiting they conducted when they found the sponsored faculty member – provided they file within 18 months of that faculty member’s appointment. This is a significant advantage in that is save both time and money.

Second, where employers filing ordinary labor certification applications must consider all applicants who meet the minimum requirements set forth in the labor certification application, colleges and universities may apply a different standard. As long as the sponsoring educational institution certifies that the sponsored faculty member was the “best qualified” candidate from the pool of available candidates at the time of his or her appointment, that is all that is necessary to show the unavailability of local workers.

Because faculty applications are designated for “special handling” they usually get processed much faster than ordinary labor certifications. Also, since it is not necessary for schools to undertake special labor certification advertising, an application for a faculty member can be filed almost immediately.

Labor certification processing presently is taking between two weeks and two months from the time of filing until approval. When the labor certification is approved, the faculty member becomes eligible to file for adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident immediately - providing his or her priority date is current. For faculty members born anywhere other than India or China, priority dates are always current.

When a faculty member applies for adjustment of status, several significant things happen very quickly. First, both the faculty member and his or her spouse receive unrestricted employment authorization and permission to travel abroad without a visa – generally within three months of filing. Second, after the application has been pending for more than180 days, the applicant may change jobs or employers and continue to process toward a green card on the basis of the earlier approved labor certification.