Immigrant Employment Visas

Immigrant Employment visas:

U.S. immigration law provides aliens with a variety of ways to become lawful permanent residents (get a Green Card) through employment in the United States. These employment-based (EB) “preference immigrant” categories include:

First preference (EB-1)

Priority workers
- Aliens with extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics.
- Outstanding professors and researchers; or
- Certain multinational managers and executives.

Second preference (EB-2)

Aliens who are members of the professions holding advanced degrees or who have exceptional ability (including requests for national interest waivers).

Third preference (EB-3)

Skilled workers, professionals, or other workers.

PERM (formerly Labor Certification): Assistance with the labor certification process.

A significant percentage of Immigrant Petitions for Alien Workers (Forms I-140) are based on permanent labor certification applications approved by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). When adjudicating a permanent labor certification application, DOL does not generally review the beneficiary’s qualifications for the position; this authority and responsibility rests with USCIS. Therefore, officers must assess these petitions to ensure that the position offered is the same or similar to the position that the DOL certified and that the beneficiary meets the qualifications for the position.

Individual Permanent Labor Certifications

In general, petitioners filing EB-2 and EB-3 petitions must first obtain an approved permanent labor certification application from DOL on behalf of the beneficiary. An approved permanent labor certification application demonstrates that:

The petitioner tested the labor market in the geographic area where the permanent job offer is located to establish that there are no able, qualified, and available U.S. workers who are willing to accept the permanent job offer; and
The employment of the beneficiary will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.

Consular Processing: Guidance for both immigrant and non-immigrant employment visas through U.S. consulates and embassies around the world.