The first step involved in obtaining a green card through employment is for your employer to get a ‘Labor Certification” from U.S. Department of Labor (US DOL) regarding the job in which he/she is planning to employ you, the certification is to state that the given occupation is facing a shortage of labor from the side of U.S. citizens and that on employing you he/she is not depriving a U.S. citizen from getting that job. US DOL first analyses the (Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker given by your employer and takes a decision based on Program Electronic Review Management/PERM.

Some common FAQ regarding Employment based applications for Green card:

How labor certification status is determined in the PERM system?

The parameters used are:

  • Whether there is a deficiency of able, qualified, willing and available United States for the given job
  • Whether the alien’s employment to a particular job at a particular wage will have an negative effect on the working conditions and wages of U.S. workers employed in similar jobs
  • Whether the employer has met the all the requirements of procedure and regulations in employing the alien worker and whether all the documents provided by him regarding the job provided by him are correct.

After getting Labor certification approved, the USCIS will forward his approval order to the National Visa Centre (NVC) and the NVC will issue a Visa Number to the alien worker which will also be forwarded to the concerned U.S. embassy or consulate nearest located to the alien, where he or she can apply for a green card or go for an “Adjust Status” procedure if he/she is already in the U.S.


How do I file a petition for Alien worker?

You have to file a USCIS Form I-140/Petition for Alien worker at the USCIS regional service center that serves the area where the alien will work. For special workers/EB-4 (religious worker, vacation exchange, holiday maker etc.) you should file USCIS Form I-360.


What other forms are required for a complete employment based green card application?

Forms I-485 (application to register permanent residence or adjust status); copy of I-797( the notice of action, showing that I-140 has been received or approved by INS if earlier than July 31, 2002 or USCIS if later; I-693 (medical examination of aliens seeking adjustment of status) and all other mandatory documents stated on the forms are needed. Apart from this you may also need the below mentioned forms:

  • G-28 (Notice of entry of appearance for attorney if you have one),
  • I-795 (Application for Employment Authorization),
  • I-131 (Application for travel document for you to travel outside the U.S.),
  • I-485A,
  • I-601 (application for waiver of grounds of excludability) etc.

Detailed FAQ regarding the green card application can be found in the below link as PDF file —-> download.

All these work can be done with ease when you apply for green card based on employment through Gavlin & Associates, P.C. as we are one among the best in this field.