DEFINITION

• Foreign nationals, who wish to establish lawful permanent residence, but who do not have relatives in the United States, may do so on the basis of employment opportunity.

• Below you find categories in which residence visas are granted on the basis of occupation.

First Preference Priority Workers

• Aliens with extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers and executives and managers of multinational companies.

• Labor certification is not required.

Second Preference Aliens of Extraordinary Ability

• Professionals with advanced degrees or those with exceptional ability in the sciences, arts, or business.

• A a labor certification and an offer of employment and are required.

Third Preference Skilled & Other Workers

• Professionals with basic degrees and skilled workers.

• Workers with positions, which require less than two years specific vocational preparation, are classified "Other Workers" and are in general subject to longer quota waiting periods.

Fourth Preference Special Immigrants

• Special Immigrants include qualified religious professionals etc.

Fifth Preference Employment Creation (Investors)

• Investors who invest $1,000,000.00 into an active U.S. business enterprise which in turn employs at least 10 United States workers.

• The investment and employment must continue for two years.

• In designated areas of high unemployment, investments of $500,000.00 may be sufficient.

• The investor who created employment is granted an initial grant of conditional residency for two years, and if the investment and employment has continued during the two year period, she or he is thereafter granted permanent residence .

LABOR CERTIFICATION

• Obtaining permanent residence by labor certification is the primary method of immigration for foreign nationals who do not have relatives in the US.

• Under most employment based visa categories, labor certification is a prerequisite for filing for lawful permanent residence.

• As workers who obtain labor certificates are considered to be in short supply, they are allowed to permanently immigrate to the US for the purpose of accepting employment. There are a number of professionals (see the list below) who do not need to obtain a labor certificate in order to immigrate:

• Registered Physical Therapists
• Registered Nurses
• Members of the Arts and Sciences, Athletics, or Business possessing extraordinary ability
• Religious professionals
• Intra-company Transferees
• Outstanding Professors and Researchers

What is PERM System?

The new PERM filing system which is the latest version of the US Department of Labor's Labor Certification Program.  In the first step of obtaining permanent resident status, one must file his/her papers through the Dept. of Labor.  Until March 05, the papers had to be filed with the local department of labor.  This was a slow and cumbersome process.  Papers would sometimes take up to five years to process through the Dept. of Labor and of course no guarentee of certification or approval.   Today, it is a whole new ballgame.  After following procedure of the adverstisements, two sundays in a row, the placement of the SWA job order for a period of three days, one may apply on the online system after the 30 day waiting period.  The time frame for decision is anywhere between one day and one year.  This is a far cry from the 5 year wait.  If the case is denied, you can reapply right away.  If the case is approved or certified, then you are on the way to the us citizenship and immigration services where you filed the i-140 immigrant petition.  the latest law says when you apply for the i-140 that you can treat that petition at the premium processing service and if the client or his sponsor pays $1000 to the dept of homeland security, if there are no problems with the case they will make this decision in 15 days.  if they will not process in 15 days, they promise to return the money to the client and still process your applications as a premium case.  after immigration approval we are applying for work authorization permission (form # i-765) and once he receives the approval the client is receiving this permission directly to his address.   then the client is applying for a social security number and once he receives the approval the client is receiving the social security directly to his address.  if the visa category is current, then you also concurrently file the i-485 adjustment of status petition.  Call for more information.

How can we help?

Our legal staff is specialized in PERM System cases. We can help, if you are an employee seeking assistance from an experienced legal immigration team to file your application, or if you are an employer seeking to reduce your application's processing time.

The price of this service is $4,500. $3,500 is required as a deposit, $500 is due upon Labor Department approval, and $500 is due upon INS approval.
+ advertisement costs in newspapaper
+ immigration filing fee
+ translation fee if necessary