Seattle Immigration Lawyer | Employment-Based Visa Preferences

Returning to my series on obtaining a green card based on a job offer, when deciding whether to apply for an immigrant visa you must determine which employment-based preference category you fall into.

The first three employment-based immigrant visa preferences are as follows:

First Preference (EB-1): Persons of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics; outstanding professors or researchers; and multinational executives and managers. (No Labor Cert. required.)

First Preference is known as the category for “priority” workers. Needless to say, the vast majority of immigrants do not meet the criteria. However, if you think you might qualify under this preference you should consult an experienced immigration attorney to make sure you meet the criteria and assist you with the visa petition—each subcategory within First Preference has its own specific requirements.

As of this month, the priority date for First Preference is current no matter where you are from, meaning there are currently enough visa numbers under this preference to meet the applicant demand. This is typical for the First Preference, though it’s not unusual for there to be a backlog for immigrants from China, India, Mexico or the Philippines, even under this preference.

Second Preference (EB-2): Professionals holding advanced degrees or persons with exceptional ability in the arts, sciences, or business. (Labor Cert. required, unless you obtain a national interest waiver. A national interest waiver may be given when the immigrant’s presence in the U.S. would benefit the U.S. in the future. The positive impact that you will have to show must be national in scope. This is a hard waiver to obtain and you should definitely consult with an experienced immigration attorney to assist you.)

The Second Preference also has specific requirements for its subcategories. In general, the Second Preference is for those who are immigrating to the U.S. in order to work full-time in their field and who have an offer for permanent employment from a U.S. employer.

Now, the exceptional ability subcategory of the Second Preference is a little easier to qualify for than the subcategory of the same name for First Preference. Here, if you can demonstrate national acclaim over a period of time that’s enough.

As of this month, the priority date for Second Preference is current (unless you are from China or India), meaning there are currently enough visa numbers under this preference to meet the applicant demand.

Third Preference (EB-3): Professionals, skilled workers, and other workers (also called “unskilled workers). (Labor Cert. required.) Most immigrants will fit into one of these subcategories, which I will discuss in my next post, along with the Fourth and Fifth Preference categories.

Seattle Immigration Lawyer | Asylum Granted For My Client!

This spring, I took on an asylum case that I had some concerns about but was confident that there would be a positive outcome eventually. I worked hard with the client to assemble a strong application with as much documentary evidence as possible, prepared the client for the interview and attended the interview with the client. Yesterday, I received a letter from USCIS stating that my client's application for asylum was granted. I called her immediately to let her know and she said it was the happiest day of her life. The application was granted in record time...I received the determination letter just 25 days from the asylum interview. Typically, it takes at least a few months, and sometimes a year or more, from the date of the interview for a determination. And, that is not including if the determination is against your client and the case is referred to an Immigration Judge for removal proceedings.

Fortunately, in this case, my client doesn't have to go through the nerve-wracking asylum process anymore. The world of difference that my client's status as an asylee will make in her life is almost indescribable. I could not be happier for her and her family.

Seattle Immigration Lawyer | Eligibility for a Green Card through Employment

My last Seattle Immigration Lawyer Blog post provided an introduction to the rather daunting process of obtaining a green card through employment. This post will go a little deeper into the eligibility requirements. Before you consider this route, you must have these two things going for you: a job offer from a U.S. employer (there are limited exceptions, including if you possess exceptional abilities or your work is in the national interest), and the employer must be generous enough to sponsor you.

If you have both of these, you are very fortunate indeed. With some more luck, and if you do not make any missteps, you may be successful in eventually getting your green card, which will allow your spouse and any unmarried children under 21 to also be eligible for a green card, assuming they are all admissible to the U.S. (And, after 5 years of having your green card, you will be eligible to apply for naturalization as a citizen.)

If your employer has a legal department (or outside counsel) that will be doing the labor certification process, that’s wonderful. If not, you should not embark on this process without representation. Consult with an experienced Seattle immigration lawyer because the rules are very strict and complex; they have also changed since a totally new system for labor certification was introduced in 2005 known as PERM.

Now, when an employer “sponsors” an immigrant, this entails going through labor certification, which essentially requires the employer to advertise and interview U.S. workers for the very job that you have been offered and reject all of these other candidates on lawful grounds. Of course, there is a lot more to the labor certification process that I will discuss later, including getting a prevailing wage determination from the state, writing a very carefully crafted job description, following a strict timeline, submitting financial records, following different advertising requirements depending on the job, etc. This is why an experienced immigration lawyer should be handling the process.

The good thing for the employer is that while Department of Labor rules require employers to pay for the labor certification process, including attorneys’ fees (though many do not follow this rule), the employer is not a financial sponsor of you, can always withdraw its green card petition for you, and, of course, is always free to fire you. The thing that makes many employers nervous, besides simply the time and money involved, is that they will have to provide financial records to USCIS; however, this is only to make sure the business can afford to hire you.

As far as the offer of employment, it must be for a full-time and permanent or indefinite period. The job must be in the U.S. from an employer permanently located in the U.S. In addition, and this is crucial, you need to have a background that matches the qualifications for the job. This is the most important factor for the government; it is not whether you have more skills than other candidates, or whether the employer likes you more. And, of course, if labor certification is required, the result of the required recruitment process—ironically, undertaken after you have been offered the job—must be that there are no U.S. workers qualified for the job offered.

In my next post, I will finally discuss the five employment-based immigrant visa preferences—anyone wishing to obtain a green card based on their job must apply under one of the preference categories.

Seattle Immigration Lawyer | Intro to Getting a Green Card Through Employment

This will be the first of several blog posts covering employment-based immigrant visas—the route to a green card through employment. Only 140,000 immigrant visas are made available per year for immigrants, along with their spouses and children, who wish to immigrate based on their job skills. On top of that, there is a quota that limits every country to seven percent of the available green cards every year. (There is no quota for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens.) And, several categories (known as “preferences”) of employment-based immigrant visa petitions require that the sponsoring employer file a labor certification application with the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) before filing a visa petition. As I will discuss later, some preferences require an employer sponsor while others permit the immigrant to self-petition.

Make no mistake, acquiring permanent residency through a job is a long process—in fact, it often takes years. If your goal is to obtain a green card through your job or offer of employment, there is rarely anything to be gained from waiting to begin the process. An experienced immigration attorney can advise you or your employer, based on your specific circumstances, as to which visa petition to file, where to file (in the U.S. or abroad), on the labor certification process (if applicable), and in designing an immigration strategy to keep you in lawful status throughout the long process, so you remain eligible for a green card.

If the visa preference you are applying under requires labor certification, then this is the first step. Assuming the certification is granted by DOL, the next step is to file the immigrant visa petition with USCIS. Once USCIS approves the immigrant visa petition, the Department of State still must issue an immigrant visa number to you in order for you to qualify to apply to adjust your status to permanent resident. Sometimes it takes years from when USCIS approves your visa petition to when you are issued an immigrant visa number. Recall that, by law, the number of immigrant visas for each country is restricted—thus if your country of origin is one in which there are a lot of other people applying for U.S. immigrant visas then you will be waiting longer. An immigration attorney can advise you on the delays to expect and in formulating a visa strategy.

Also, for some preferences, the availability of an immigrant visa number depends on the priority date. In this context, the priority date is determined by your country of birth and the preference you are applying under. Once your priority date is current, there is no waiting period. For cases where labor certification is required, your priority date is set by that process. For the EB-1/National Interest Waiver preference, the priority date is when the I-140 immigrant worker visa petition was received by USCIS. To check whether your priority date is current, look at the monthly Visa Bulletin issued by the State Department.

Stay tuned for my next few Seattle Immigration Lawyer Blog posts, which will look at labor certification and the different employment visa preferences.

Seattle Immigration Lawyer | Permanent Residents Convicted of Crimes

A good immigration attorney should know how to obtain a waiver for his or her client from deportation when the client has been unfortunate enough to be convicted of a crime. Even though a client may be deportable based on the criminal conviction, qualifying lawful permanent residents (LPR) may be eligible for the LPR cancellation of removal waiver (INA 240A(a)), and keep their LPR status. The time to apply for this waiver is when you are in removal proceedings. The Immigration Judge has the discretion to deny the waiver even if the client meets the statutory requirements.

Here’s the statutory test: removal may be canceled if the alien—(1) has been an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence for not less than 5 years; (2) has resided in the US continuously for 7 years after having been admitted in any status; and, (3) has not been convicted of any aggravated felony.

Assuming the first two requirements are not at issue, the key issue is whether the conviction qualifies as an “aggravated felony” as defined by the federal immigration statute, INA 1101(a)(a)(43). It is crucial to understand that many misdemeanors are “aggravated felonies” under immigration law and not all felonies are “aggravated felonies.” If you are shopping for an immigration lawyer and he or she does not know this, do not even think about hiring that attorney.

When an immigration attorney analyzes your conviction, there is no substitute for a close reading of the statutory definition and current court decisions, as offenses are reclassified frequently by federal appeals courts. They are not all obvious; in fact, sometimes even clients that have served long prison sentences may still be eligible for cancellation of removal. Some of the more popular aggravated felonies are crimes of violence, theft offenses, and fraud. Some of the offenses listed in the statute specify monetary amounts of funds stolen, the term of imprisonment served, or, the term of imprisonment that the offense is punishable by—notice the distinction here. Also, a good immigration attorney will consider the possibility of reopening a client's criminal court case, as any changes will be binding on the Immigration Court.

Now, just because you pass the aggravated felony test does not mean you are safe from deportation due to a criminal conviction. Coming up, I will discuss how to tell if a conviction qualifies as a “crime involving moral turpitude,” which can also be grounds for deportation of an LPR.

Seattle Immigration Lawyer | The Marriage Route to Getting a Green Card Cont’d – Living in the U.S. and Married to a LPR

I have used the last three postings of the Seattle Immigration Lawyer Blog to discuss this popular topic and after this current posting it will be time to move on. In this last scenario, if the immigrant spouse is living in the U.S. and married to a U.S. LPR, the LPR files the visa petition with USCIS, which goes into the now familiar “lockbox.” When the immigrant spouse’s priority date is current, or close to that time, the petition will hopefully be approved.

But, here is where it really gets ugly. The immigrant spouse living in the U.S. who is married to a U.S. LPR may be trapped because the only way he or she can stay in the U.S. and adjust status (apply for a green card) is if he or she has been in status, that is legally living in the U.S., this whole time, and not working illegally. (There is an exception if you started the process when earlier laws governed. As always, you should consult with an experienced immigration attorney to determine if any exceptions apply to you.)

As an immigration lawyer, and simply as a person with at least some common sense, I think this is quite frankly, unfair. After all, it could take years before your priority date is current. (Or not, it depends on the backlog. As of Sept. 2010, the priority date for 2A was 1/1/2010. But, for example, just last year there was a backlog of around 5 years.) One option is to leave the U.S. before staying illegally for 6 months, wait for the priority date to become current and go through the consular processing system abroad.

However, as is often the case, the spouse has been living out of status in the U.S., which could trigger a bar on re-entry to the U.S. (there are various bars, the main two are: 3 year bar for those unlawfully present for 180 days after 4/1/97; 10 year bar for those unlawfully present for 365 days after 4/1/97).

Another option would be to stay in the U.S., out of status, and hope to adjust status once the priority date is current, but the immigrant spouse would be vulnerable to removal the whole time, which is not a pleasant way to live, and, of course, illegal.

Yet another option would be to leave the U.S. after staying longer than 6 months out of status, but less than a year, so the 3 year inadmissibility bar applies but not the 10 year. Whether this is crazy or not depends on the waiting period, and the processing times for your consulate.

Of course, ideally, the U.S. LPR spouse will become naturalized, which will allow you to upgrade the application and do away with the “lockbox”. I can’t think of a good reason to wait until your U.S. LPR spouse is a citizen before filing the green card application. If your spouse becomes a citizen, that’s wonderful, you can upgrade the petition then, but you might as well get in line right away.