What Happens After Labor Certification Approval?

If you are looking to sponsor a prospective foreign national for permanent resident status in the U.S., you may find the process rather daunting. The labor certification approval process in and of itself can be lengthy. This certification process is in place to assure the U.S. Department of Labor that there are no qualified, willing, and able U.S. workers to take the position that has been offered to the sponsored foreign national. While the road to travel may be lengthy, you may see a light at the end of the tunnel once you submit your PERM labor certification application and it is approved by the DOL. You aren’t quite done yet, however.

What Happens After Labor Certification Approval?

After your PERM application is approved by DOL you, as the sponsoring employer need to file an I-140 Immigrant Worker Petition with USCIS. This must be done within six months of having your PERM application approved. For the I-140 Petition, you must prove that you have the ability to pay the wage you have offered to the foreign national and that the prospective employee has the level of education and experience, as well as the skills required for the job as described in the PERM application. Evidence to support this may include balance sheets and profit and loss statements.

Processing time for an I-140 petition could take anywhere from four to six months to be adjudicated. If you are willing to pay an additional fee of $2,500.00 to USCIS, then you can get premium processing of your Petition which will usually take 15 calendar days to complete. Should USCIS request additional information in order to process the I-140 petition, however, thirty to sixty days more could be tacked on to the processing time, and an additional 15 calendar days if premium processing was requested.

As far as the payment of fees goes, there is no restriction on who can pay the fees and other expenses associated with the processing of an I-140 Petition. An employer could cover all of this or part of this. Alternatively, these costs could be passed on to the prospective foreign national for whom the employer is doing the I-140 Petition process.

Most of the time, the foreign national is already in the U.S. When this is the case, the easiest next step after approval of the I-140 Petition is to file an I-485 Application to Adjust Status. This is also the step in the process where the family of the foreign national can join him or her in the U.S. and file their own Applications as dependents of the employee. If the prospective employee is still outside of the U.S., then a DS-260 Immigrant Visa Application can be filed with the U.S. consular post abroad. The prospective employee will need to attend an interview at the Consulate in that case.

Immigration Law Attorneys

If you have questions or want to access additional information about US or Canadian Immigration and Nationality Laws, please feel free to get in touch with the immigration and nationality lawyers at the NPZ Law Group. If you have more questions about how these laws in the US may impact you or your family, contact the lawyers specialized in US Immigration and Nationality laws at VISASERVE. You can also send us an email at info@visaserve.com or you can call us at 201-670-0006 (x104). In addition to that, we invite you to find more information on our website at www.visaserve.com