PERM Processing Times (as of 02/28/2018)
1. While I am moving my H-1 New Employer B, What if something goes wrong during H-1 transfer or after that in GC processing with new employer like RFEs etc comes up, can I move back to employer A if employer A is willing to take me back. Does AC 21 portability rule applied to my case also? Since I have not filed I-485 yet, as per my understanding this rule does not apply to me. While my GC is in process with new Employer B and I am in waiting mode for I-140 approval with new employer, What will happen if my time to extend H-1 petition comes up.
<br>
2. Can I still extend my H-1 with new Employer even if I-140 with new employer is in process and not yet approved. Can I use my old Employers approved I-140 to extend my H-1 in this situation.
Note: This is a verbatim transcript of the referenced audio/video media delivered as oral communication, and, therefore, may not conform to written grammatical or syntactical form.
PERM Processing Times (as of 03/31/2018)
According to DOL updates as of July 31 2009, they are working on PERM application filed in the following months: No Audit/Final Review: November 2008 Audit: October 2007 Appeals: July 2007
My 6 year period of H1b visa expires in Dec 2010 and my labor application is still pending for approval. It was filed in February 2009. Am I eligible to apply for a visa extension , if so when should I apply for that? I assume I still have time.
H-1 extension beyond six years can be obtained under two circumstances:
First, indefinite H-1 extensions in one-year increments can be obtained, if the I-140 (or I-485) was filed and the green card process was started a year ago. The GC process is started for:
- Labor Certification based cases (including PERM) the date for the begining of the countdown is the date when the labor certification is officially received:
- for PRE PERM cases - by the local office (SWA); and
While submitting application for 485, must the primary applicant be on a project? My husband is a consultant on H1B, the employer has filed for green card - should my husband in a project during the 485 submission; will a between projects situation be an issue for filing 485?
Video Transcript:
Note: This is a verbatim transcript of the referenced audio/video media delivered as oral communication, and, therefore, may not conform to written grammatical or syntactical form.
Filing I-824 together with the I-485 - The right thing to do when filing the I-824 is to file both the I-824 together with the I-485 or wait till the I-485 is approved. USCIS identifies the reasons as to why an I-824 is interfiled. However an I-824 should not be rejected or denied only because it is interfiled and the I-485 is not yet approved.
Note: If an I-824 is interfiled, it may not be approved at the same time as the I-485 and the I-485 processing times will apply.
DOL seems to have stopped progressing on the Audit cases. Can litigation alleviate this problem and force them to atleast respond?
All things considered, in my view, a Mandamus is possible. But the chances of success are remote at least in DC circuit. Typically, in delay cases, courts do not interfere with the executive branch of the govt. At the very least, lawsuits draw attention to difficult issues. I think a petition to the govt. should be the first step. May be the worthy President can help. Although, speedy processing in this environment is certainly not a politically popular issue, but we have all followed the laws and the promise of the laws.
Topic: Accreditation of Distance Education in USA
Date: March 12, 2012
Total Time: 2 mintues 40 seconds
Hello, everyone. This is Rajiv S. Khanna for the Law Offices of Rajiv S. Khanna, P.C, immigration.com.
A number of people have asked me this question in the last few days about how do they tell, if they finish a masters degree online through distance education in the U.S., how do they know if the degree is accredited?
I have looked into this issue because it became such a big issue for people, especially those who are born in countries where EB-3 is very backed up and EB-2 is a much better option.
So I did some review. This is the best of my knowledge. I am not an expert in accreditations, but what I see is this. On the screen in front of you, you see this page where they talk about accrediting agencies recognized for distance education and correspondence education.
This is a page on the Department of Education website.
http://www2.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/accreditation_pg10.html
Let me backtrack for a second.
First thing you do is ask the school where you want to go whether the particular program you want to do is accredited and, if so, who accredits it. In other words, the accreditation agency that is accrediting it. Get the name, and see if that name appears on this list right here.
Sometimes a particular program or a particular degree might be accredited, but not the whole school, and sometimes vice versa. So be careful--make sure that particular program is covered by the accreditation.
Good luck to you folks and if you have further questions, log in to the community conference call or we can talk a little bit on the blog itself.
The Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) has established a process by which members of the public may subscribe to receive e-mail alerts whenever the Department posts an announcement updating some aspect of the OFLC website, e.g., program updates, outreach announcements, new Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), disclosure data, etc.
Please check the attachment to read the instructions on how to subscribe to OFLC e-mail alerts.
OFLC is pleased to present the fourth in a series of Permanent Labor Certification Program-Selected Statistics.
This Fact Sheet presents statistics regarding Permanent Labor Certification program applications submitted during FY 2012.
Check the attachment to view Permanent Labor Certification Program-Selected Statistics.
Efficient and super fast processing. I got the Labor cert approved in 5 business days.
My case manager Amrita is very knowledgeable about the process and clarified my doubts with utmost diligence.
Many Thanks to Seema and Mathew for helping in my case when needed.
Great job done by Rajiv Khanna's Law Office. Got my Perm certified in 35 days in EB2 category. Thanks to Amrita and Seema for their excellent work. I always got reply from them within a few hours. I am sure Mr. Khanna's team will continue their excellent work on next steps toward my Green Card.
I strongly recommend their services.
Excellent service!! Great Job!!! I Got my Perm Certified in 2 days. Thanks to Vijay Durgam,Pramita and Sushila for their excellent and prompt work. Thanks Rajiv Khanna for his prompt replies.
Transcript: Working Outside USA While in Green Card or H-1 Process
April 17, 2012
Hello, everyone. This is Rajiv S. Khanna for immigration.com, the Law Offices of Rajiv S. Khanna, P.C.
I have in front of me a couple of questions from two different people. They’re related so I thought I would club them together. The basic idea is this:
Can I, as an H-1 holder or as Green Card pending status individual, work outside USA instead of being inside USA?
I am just going to do a quick talk on the implications of a person working outside USA while he or she is an H-1 or a Green Card applicant.
The first question relates to somebody who has an EB-3 Green Card pending. As you know, that’s a decade-long wait. So, people have to make some plans about their lives.
So this gentleman says, actually, he’s one of our clients, both myself and my wife are working on EAD and traveling on Advanced Parole. So they have got an I-485 pending but they are EB-3. He is the primary. She is the dependent. The wife wants to move to India for longer than one year and is planning to come back before her EAD gets expired.
First of all, is this okay? Yes, of course. As long your Advanced Parole is alive, EAD doesn’t matter if you are working outside USA with I-485 pending. Only thing we care about is your Advanced Parole or your H-1 visa. Under the circumstances, I would recommend Advanced Parole. Keep it active. Keep it alive. For a derivative, there is absolutely no problem if they are working outside USA. If you are the primary applicant for an I-485, things could be a little different. Now, what happens is that there’s a decision tree.
You can have two situations. One, you are still working for your Green Card sponsoring employer, but you’re working outside USA. The second situation is you’re working outside USA for somebody other than your sponsoring employer. What happens then? There is nothing illegal about it. Both of these situations are allowed. But there is a common sense rule here. The government could say, “Why is it if you have a permanent job in USA, your sponsoring employer can get the job done without you?” Now, there could be many reasons for this. One of the reasons could be the nature of the job is such that could be done anywhere for the time being. So the employer is willing to accommodate you. But, whatever the reasons are, be prepared to be sensitive to that question. Is there really a job? They can ask you that. The idea is that you could be working from anywhere. That is not the main issue here. The most important thing here is that there should be a good explanation that you have a job in USA that is ready and open for you.
One of the issues here is keep in mind that certain technologies don’t allow people from outside USA to work. Most people don’t know that. I think there is some restriction, for example, on encryption technology. I think certain encryption technology is considered weapons grade. Just look into that.
Otherwise, just ordinary commercial jobs, ordinary software development, ordinary financial consulting, can be done from anywhere. That is not an issue. Remember whether or not you have proper work authorization in USA. This is very important to also keep in mind. For example, if you are working from, for example, India, it is not required that you have proper work authorization in USA. I don’t care if you have an EAD. That’s perfectly legal. You are working on Indian soil, not on American soil. I don’t care if you have an EAD. I don’t care if you have an H-1. And that will bring me to my next question in a minute or two.
It also does not matter whether you come to USA periodically or not, as long as the job is alive and well and waiting for you, you should be okay. For the primary and the derivative. For the derivative, it is absolutely no problem. Her job is not implicated at all. She can work from anywhere. But, for the primary applicant, this idea that job is still there and waiting has to be kept in mind. And don’t make things up, guys. We’ve to be truthful about this.
The same situation for H-1 people. I’ve got people who go to India or go to their home countries and get stuck in long, long adversarial processes that go on to three months, four months, five months, six months. What should they do? If you can get your job outsourced and you can work from your home country while the H-1 process is going on, it’s absolutely no problem. You can continue working. Now there can be tax aspects that you’ve got to figure out with your CPA’s. How you do you get paid? Where do you pay taxes? Things like that. But those are tax issues and they can be figured out. People do it all the time. In fact, our own office has a couple of employees from other countries. I don’t think that’s a problem. That can be worked out.
The more important question--What is the impact on my H-1?
For example, I am outside USA for more than one year. What happens to your H-1 is that, after one year outside USA, you can reset the clock and have six years of H-1 all over again, or you can go with something like a remainder option. It’s called the remainder option. I’ll explain the rule in a minute. The idea here is this. If you are outside USA for more than one year, you get six years of H-1 back, but then you are subject to the H-1 quota. If you’re outside, good news is six years back. Bad news is quota. If you don’t want to be subject to the quota, you have to give up your right to six years of H-1 and take whatever is remaining in your H-1 six years initially. That’s called the remainder option. Those are the choices you have. There is nothing wrong in working outside USA.
Bear in mind these principals. If a primary applicant, make sure there’s a job available. If a derivative on an I-485, work from anywhere. No problem. If on H-1, you can outsource the job. You can work from anywhere in the world. Doesn’t matter where you are. The only thing is, at some point, if it’s more than one year outside USA, you have to make a choice of either a remainder or resetting the clock and being subject to the quota.
I hope that explains things adequately, guys. As always, it’s good talking with you. I will speak with you folks soon.
It is HIGHLY unusual for a PERM case to have such a convoluted history, but here is one where success came after two denials.
We filed a PERM application under EB-2 for a Physicist’s position for which no formal training was required. The job also did not require employment experience, but did require hands-on work in a university research laboratory with a particular equipment. DOL denied the application stating essentially that the job requires training. According to them, “hands on work” is the same as formal training.
Hello, everyone. This is Rajiv S. Khanna for immigration.com, the Law Offices of Rajiv S. Khanna, P.C.
I am very pleased to report this morning that I saw a news report from USCIS Nebraska Service Center teleconference on April 12, 2012, that clarified you can carry forward the Priority Date from one I-140 approval to another 1-140 approval for another employer, even if the old employer revokes the I-140. USCIS has flip-flopped on this issue several times.
Let me first bring you to the news. Right here it says. If you look at the question number two. The answer is, both centers adhere to retaining the earlier priority date, unless the I-140 was revoked for fraud or willful misrepresentation. So the idea here is this: even if you go from Employer A to Employer B, and Employer A revokes the I-140 approval, the Priority Date is yours to carry forward to any employer you like--B,C,D,E--unless the employer A’s I- 140 was revoked for fraud or misrepresentation.
The history of this interpretation is strange. A few years ago, this was the position. USCIS always said you can carry the Priority Date forward. A couple of years ago, they started saying, “No, you cannot.” We had several cases in which they raised this issue, so anybody who has had this issue decided against them can actually go back and file a motion to reopen/reconsider. I advise you to think about this very carefully. You could actually go back and ask USCIS for the Priority Date to be carried forward if they had earlier denied it. There’s a whole lot of people who went through this. File a motion to reconsider. Then USCIS started saying, “Well, you cannot do it.”
Now they are back to their old, very good interpretation, which is in line with Congressional intention for AC-21, where Congress wanted to create room for people to leave their jobs and move on to other jobs because Green Cards were taking so long. So Congress said, “We’ll put in AC-21.” That will make it easier for employees to change jobs without losing their Green Card benefits.
This is excellent news, folks. Once again, I am summarizing it for you. You can carry your Priority Date forward, even if the old I-140 is revoked, unless the I-140 is revoked for some fraud or some willful misinterpretation.
One more thing I wanted to add. This is not good for H-1. Don’t think that if the I-140 is revoked, you can still use it for H-1 extensions. You cannot. If you want H-1 extensions beyond six years, you’ve got to have something else going. You cannot rely on the revoked I-140.
That’s all I have to say on this issue. I will speak with you folks soon.
Thank you for listening.
According to DOL updates as of 4/2/2012, they are working on PERM application filed in the following months:
Analyst Reviews: January 2012
Audits: September 2011
Reconsideration Requests to the CO: March 2011
Great Job!!! I Got my Perm Certified in 5 days in EB2 Category. Thanks to Pramita and Roopa for their excellent work.
The Department of Labor has posted a revised Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) regarding the Permanent (PERM) Program and the consequences of withdrawing an application in Supervised Recruitment.
What are the consequences of an employer requesting to withdraw an application undergoing Supervised Recruitment?
If the employer will accept an alternate combination of education and experience and the acceptable number of years is other than a whole number, how can the employer inform the Department of the acceptable number of years on the ETA Form 9089? The field wherein the number of years must be entered, Section H, Item 8-C, only accepts whole number entries.
To inform the Department of the acceptable number of years where the value is other than a whole number, the employer should round to the nearest whole number, e.g., a value of 6 months would become 1 year and a value of 15 months will become 1 year, enter the whole number in Section H, Item 8-C, and then use Section H, Item 14 to provide the actual number of years and months.
Example 1: Where the employer accepts, as an alternate combination of education and experience, a Bachelor's degree and 6 months experience (0.5 years), the employer will mark "Bachelor's" in 8-A. and will enter "1" year in Section H, Item 8-C, having rounded the six months (0.5 years) up to the nearest whole number, in terms of years. The employer will then explain in Section H, Item 14, that its actual acceptable alternate combination of education and experience is a Bachelor's degree plus 6 months (0.5 years) experience but it entered 1 year in Section H, Item 8-C, per the FAQ.
Example 2: Where the employer accepts, as an alternate combination of education and experience, a Bachelor's degree and 15 months experience (1.25 years), the employer will mark "Bachelor's" in 8-A. and will enter "1" year in Section H, Item 8-C, having rounded the 15 months (1.25 years) down to the nearest whole number, in terms of years. The employer will then explain in Section H, Item 14, that its actual acceptable alternate combination of education and experience is a Bachelor's degree plus 15 months (1.25 years) experience but it entered 1 year in Section H, Item 8-C, per the FAQ.
Revised May 29, 2012
Can third party software tools that interface with the web based forms made available by the Department of Labor (Department) be used to manage the filing of online applications?
The Department takes no position as to whether an employer can use third party software tools. However, it is important to remember that these third party tools were developed without the participation, review, or approval of the Department or the Office of Foreign Labor Certification. As such, the Department cannot vouch for the accuracy or integrity of data submitted using third party tools. It is the responsibility of the party using such tools to review the submitted application completely for accuracy and errors prior to submitting.
When making inquiries about situations encountered while submitting data to the PERM Case Management System please be sure to advise the helpdesk if you are submitting information with the aid of a third party software application. In some situations you may need to contact the developer of the third party system to resolve issues.
May 29, 2012
In accordance with PERM regulations at 20 CFR §656.17(f)(1) and the preamble (69 FR 77326, 77348 (Dec. 27, 2004)), as with any advertisement, the employer's name must appear on the job order placed with the SWA. SWA procedures that allow for applicants to view the employer name only after applying for the position do not satisfy the requirement that the employer's name be in the job order. If the SWA's job placement process results in the name of the employer not being visible to job seekers, the employer must include its name in the body of the job order so that the employer's name is visible to potential applicants when viewing the job order.
June 11, 2012
In the preamble to the PERM regulations (69 FR 77326, 77331 (Dec. 27, 2004)), the Department of Labor indicated that SWA job order "[r]eferrals will be handled the same way they are handled for other job orders, which may vary from state to state." However, the PERM regulations at 20 CFR §656.10(c)(8) also state that the employer must attest that "[t]he job opportunity has been and is clearly open to any U.S. worker." Therefore, the employer must receive all resumes submitted to the SWA through a posted job order. To ensure that the SWA refers to it all U.S. workers, the employer must indicate to the SWA, pursuant to each SWA's specific process, that it wants to receive all resumes and all types of referrals (e.g., qualified, best qualified, minimally qualified, etc.). This instruction to the SWA ensures that the employer is accepting and reviewing the resumes of all U.S. workers and determining which of the applicants meets the minimum qualifications for the job opportunity, as well as gives all U.S. workers access to such jobs.
June 11, 2012
Under the PERM regulations at 20 CFR §656.17(e)(1)(i)(A) and §656.17(e)(2)(i), the employer's job order for both professional and nonprofessional occupations must be placed with the SWA serving the area of intended employment for a period of 30 days. Moreover, during this 30-day period, the job order must be accessible and visible to the public at large, i.e., the entire pool of job seekers potentially qualified for the position. Therefore, where a SWA has a special exemption of making job orders accessible to only certain groups, such as veterans, the employer must still ensure that the job order is accessible and/or visible to the public for the full required period of 30 days. The employer can accomplish this by instructing the SWA to post the job for the required 30-day time period only after the days during which the SWA holds the job order open only to the select group.
For example: If the job order start date is Monday, May 7, 2012, the end date must be Wednesday, June 6, 2012, to meet the 30-day job order posting requirement. However, if the SWA places a hold on the job order, so that it is only accessible and/or visible to a certain group, from Monday, May 7, 2012, until Wednesday, May 9, 2012, then the employer must ask the SWA to keep the job order open, and accessible and/or visible to the public at large, from Thursday, May 10, 2012 until Saturday, June 9, 2012, to comply with the 30-day requirement.
June 11, 2012
Hi Rajiv, I want to take this moment and offer you my utmost gratitude and thankfulness for your support and cooperation in my Green Card process. My case was little complicated as I had another I-485 with another lawyer with different job descriptions but same company. But with your expertise there was no RFE . This has been possible by the perseverance and dedication that was offered by your office. And I want to specially thank Amrita who has been exceptionally helpful to me for all these years. I must have contacted her zillion times for questions and concerns that never left me alone. But she always maintained her professional outlook and gave me the best guidance. This entire immigration process was only possible through your support. I will highly recommend your law firm for all immigration matters. Its the best indeed. Regards, Ashish Agrawal