| Dear Employer: Your employee has contacted this office for green card options.
Because of his/her occupation, the employee's best option is to get the green card
through your company's sponsorship. I would like to take this opportunity to briefly
explain the basic process of the green card application through labor certification and
also explain our role in this process so that both you and your employee have a better
understanding of the process.
This employment-based immigration petition takes three
steps to obtain permanent residence for your employee: (1) PERM
labor certification; (2) immigrant petition; and (3) application for adjustment of status. Throughout these three
steps, I will work as the immigration attorney both for your employee and for your company,
even though our service may be compensated by the employee. Let me briefly explain each of
these three steps:
During the Labor Certification application, the employer
needs to test the job market to see if there are any qualified US workers who can perform
the duties that your employee is doing in his/her position. The labor certification
procedure is intended to assure that you are not seeking to employ a foreign national when
qualified U.S. workers are available to fill the position, and that you have not offered
wages or working conditions to the foreign national that adversely affect the wages or
working conditions of U.S. workers. If the labor certification procedure locates any U.S.
workers who meet your minimum requirements (education, experience, and training) for the
position, you will not be permitted to obtain permanent residence for the alien workers.
In order to start the process, we need to place advertisements in a newspaper or
professional magazine. Many employers do not understand this
requirement and ask: "We do not have a position opening, why should
we advertise the position again?" Actually, yes, you do have an open
position. This position is the one being held by the alien employee
(in this case). This position is a permanent position, however this
alien employee has only a temporary work visa in the United States.
He/she will not be able to work permanently at the position IF he/she does
not have a permanent residence in the United States. The purpose of
the advertisements is to test the job market to see if there is any US
citizen or permanent resident who is qualified, able, available and
willing to meet the job requirements and perform the job duties required
by the job.
If there is a qualified candidate for the position, your company
can either hire him/her or reject him/her. If you do so, your employee’s labor
certification fails, unless you have multiple openings or the qualified person is hired
for a different position. If there is no applicant or no qualified applicant, your
application will be approved by the Department of Labor (DOL). However, the state labor
department with which the application is filed often raises questions about the
application, for example, that the minimum requirements are too restrictive, or that the
wage offer is too low and requires additional explanations, documentation
and/or even
arguments. It is a normal part of most labor certification cases. Should this occur, I
would work closely with you to solve it. The labor certification process is the most
difficult and complicated process. Although I will do everything possible to make the
process as painless as possible for you and to assure that it causes minimum disruption to
your business, your active involvement, interest, and cooperation throughout the process
is necessary for the successful conclusion of the process.
During the recruitment process, my job is to evaluate your
employee's case including obtaining certified prevailing wage, planning the case strategy,
preparing the draft of the advertisement, sending the draft for your review and approval,
and placing the ad, helping review resumes, drafting recruitment report and filing the
application. Your job is to post an in-house "Job Opportunity" posting, collect
resumes, if any, do the interview (only when the candidate’s qualifications really
matches the requirements in the ad, and I have recommended an interview), and sign the forms
and the reports I have prepared.
After the DOL approves our labor certification application,
I will prepare an immigration petition with other supporting documents (your
company’s ability to pay the wage) and send you the form for review and signature.
Then I file the petition with the Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS (formerly INS)).
After the USCIS (formerly INS)
approves the petition, I will prepare the
application for adjustment of status for your employee and file the application after your
employee signs the application.
The whole green card process takes from about two to
five years depending on the case category and the availability of the
immigrant visa numbers.
Throughout the whole immigration process, your employee should be employed by your
company. If the employment is terminated by any one including your employee for any
reason(s), his/her immigration petition fails unless your company is willing to continue
your sponsorship. Therefore your support will be crucial to your employee's efforts to
obtain a permanent residence to continue his/her employment with your company.
As the immigration attorney for this case,
we will take care
of all the legal paperwork for your company and for your employee. We
have achieved excellent results for all applications under the PERM labor
certification process. If you are interested in learning more about
the process or if you are interested in viewing the sample approvals we have
obtained, please visit http://www.uslawnet.com/Englishhome/PERM/PERM.htm.
As the whole process is a complicated process, I hope that you discuss
this matter with your employee and let me know if you have any other questions. Thank you
for your time and support.
Jeff Z. Xie
Attorney At Law
1770 Indian Trail Lilburn Road, Suite 450
Norcross (Atlanta), Georgia 30093
Tel: (678) 380-0698
Fax: (678) 380-0668
email: help@xielaw.com
website: http://www.xielaw.com |
