PERM Labor Certification Applications
The majority of employment-based immigration options require an approved Program Electronic Review Management (PERM) labor certification from the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) as part of the permanent residency process. Our immigration lawyers at Wilson Law Group in Minneapolis have been helping organizations and foreign professionals secure the appropriate paperwork and documentation for employment-based visas since 2003.
Visa Categories That Require PERM Labor Certification
The employment-based visa categories that require a PERM labor certification are EB-2 visas for those with advanced degrees or for persons of exceptional ability (other than National Interest Waiver cases) and EB-3 visas for professionals, skilled workers and unskilled workers.
The PERM labor certification process requires the employer to prove to the USDOL that it cannot find a willing and able U.S. worker to perform the particular position in question. To show this, the employer must test the labor market for several weeks by actively advertising and recruiting for the position. The USDOL has extremely precise regulations as to the timing, form and content of the recruiting efforts that must be conducted by the sponsoring employer. It is therefore imperative that the employer comply with the requirements and other obligations, including responding properly to resumes or applications by interested candidates and handling of documents.
I-140 Immigrant Visa Petitions
If the recruitment is unsuccessful, meaning there are no qualified, willing, able, and available U.S. workers to fill the position, the employer files the labor certification application with the USDOL. If USDOL certifies the application, the employer can proceed to filing an I-140 immigrant visa petition under the appropriate preference category with U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services. Once the immigrant visa is approved and a visa number is available, the foreign national may apply for permanent residency. If a visa number is not immediately available, however, the foreign national must wait for a number to become available before seeking residency.
There are numerous regulations and requirements for this category. Our immigration attorneys at Wilson Law Group have extensive experience with PERM labor certification applications for small- and large-scale business.
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Our attorneys offer free initial consultations. We encourage you to contact our office by calling 612-430-8022 or by sending an email to schedule your free appointment with one of our immigration attorneys to discuss your particular legal matter.
