Employment-based Green Card

For those who have applied for a green card through their employer or are planning to apply for a green card, here is some useful information on the process.

Employment-based Green Card - An Overview

An employer can sponsor its employee's Green card. It is a multi step process, involving certain document work confined by few rules and regulations.
There are few categories for granting permanent residence to the foreign nationals, based on employment skills.

Employment based green card categories are:
EB1, EB2, EB3, EB4, EB5.
Most of the technical workers fall under first 3 categories.

i) EB1: employee with extraordinary ability in the science, arts, education, business or athletics, professors, researchers and Ph.D. holders etc. falls under this category.
It also includes people working in US as managers and executives on international transfer basis (Company transfer L1 holder)

(ii) EB2: This includes employee with extra ability in the field of science, arts or business, and advanced degree professionals (PG. degree holder).

(iii) EB3: This includes professionals with Bachelor/ Graduate degree, and other skilled workers.

Learn more about each of the employment based green card categories:

• EB1 First Preference
• EB-1A Extraordinary Ability
• EB-1B Professors and Researchers
• EB-1C Executives and Managers
• EB-2B Exceptional Ability
• EB3 Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Other Workers
• EB4 Special Immigrants
• EB5 Immigrant Investor

Green Card Process

Employment based green card is a 4 step process:

It's a sequential step wise process.

Step 1: Labor Certification

Application (ETA-750) submission through your employer to DOL (Department of labor). PERM (Program Electronic Review Management) is an electronic processing system wherein labor certification applications are filed electronically and directly with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). Labor certification is a critical step in the process of getting a green card.

Step 2: Petition for immigration I-140

Your employer files Application (I-140 ) to INS.

This requires a careful collection go relevant document checklist for Form I-140 to be filed along with the I-140.

Step 3: Adjustment of Status ( I-485) OR Consular Processing

File I-485 and other supporting documents with INS, for yourself and family within USA.
At this time you can also file for EAD ( Employment Authorization Document) and AP ( Advance Parole or Travel Document), once you file for 485, you will be required to do fingerprinting.
In this case Step 2 and 3 can go parallel, known as concurrent filing, however 485 can't be approved without approval of I40.
OR
Take consular processing Interview at a US Consulates in your Home Country.

Step 4: Finally

Get the stamping in your passport and Receiving the Plastic card.

Note: The overall process is time consuming, as it involves formalities and a great deal of paper work. It is granted against per year Quota/per country/per category. Originally, a major constraint was that a person applying for a green card needed to stick with the company, through which his/her green card was getting processed, until the green card was issued, otherwise the process would be disrupted, he/she would have to resubmit a fresh application from the beginning. This rule however, has changed: As of January 17, 2017, employers will no longer be able to revoke I-140 petitions from employees who have held them for more than 180 days, even if their services have been terminated.

Green Card Renewal

Application for green card renewal may filed online through e-filing or by filing and mailing a paper application. The application to renew green card is Form I-90, which you can download and mail or file online.

A,green card renewal fee of $455 has to accompany the application.

Renewal Case Status A case number issued with the receipt should be used for all your application status tracking purpose. You can check your green card renewal status online

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