Upon receiving an approved labor certification, our office prepares
a visa petition to be submitted to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services.
The purpose of the visa petition is to prove to the Immigration
Service that:
- the position has been certified by the Department of Labor,
- the employee meets all of the requirements listed on the labor certification,
and
- the sponsoring company has sufficient resources to pay the employee's
salary. Also, this step will establish whether the employee is a second
preference (normally a person with at least a Master’s
level education) or third preference (a person with less than
a Master’s level education) immigrant. In some cases, the
preference for which the employee qualifies may determine how long it will
take to immigrate to the United States. In some cases,
it takes a person with a third preference approval longer to
immigrate than a person with a second preference approval.
During the visa petition phase, it will be necessary to submit
documentation from the employer demonstrating its ability to
pay the employee's salary. This will usually be in the form of a federal
tax return, or for larger companies, a letter or annual report.
In addition, it is at this step in the process that we will
be submitting documentation regarding proof of the employee's education
and experience. Therefore, at that time, we will need diplomas,
transcripts, and letters from previous employers, as required.
Normally, we request those items early in the labor certification
process.
Assuming that the labor certification has been approved and
that we have the necessary documentation, there should be no
problems at this stage. On occasion, we may disagree with the
Immigration Service as to whether a person should be classified
as second preference or third preference immigrant. However,
if that issue arises, we will provide a complete briefing of
any possible ramifications.
By the time we file the visa petition, we must decide whether
the employee will be applying for permanent residence here in the United
States or at an American Consulate abroad. Normally, the application
for permanent residence will be processed here in the United
States. There are, however, reasons that may dictate processing
through an American Consulate in the employee ’s home
country such as the need for frequent travel abroad, local USCIS
time delays, ineligibility for processing in the United States,
etc.
Step Three: Application
for Permanent Residence
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