Finding the best talent for your organization can be tricky. You want to ensure that while you are advertising the job and stating your requirements, you cast your net wide enough to obtain a diverse pool of employees to choose from. You may find excellent options for employees where you are located, but what about the ones that fit your job’s requirements the best but are thousands of miles away in another country? You could hire them to work from home. However, working from home is not suitable for all jobs. So, what could be the solution in this case? The best way forward for qualifying candidates that fit the bill is to obtain a green card in the U.S through immigration labor advertising. There is a relatively complicated step-by-step procedure to follow to get permanent residency in the States through successful immigration ads with the help of PERM certification. How can you do this? Let’s get into it!
Step 1: Job Duties and Minimum Requirements
When a reliable immigrating advertisement company handles your petition, the first step in a series of many, including correspondence between the attorneys, employers, and employees, is to ensure that the job details are correct. These details would include job titles, duties, responsibilities, experience, the minimum education required, job location, and other information, including the total number of employees. It is up to the employer to ensure that all the job requirements are clearly stated and comply with the regulations put out by the Department of Labor. These requirements also need to be based on realistic business practices so that even after your application is approved, you can have people apply. When accepting the job offer, the employee must prove that they meet all the requirements stated by the DOL. If the job duties, location, or minimum requirements need to be changed down the line, the process will start again.
Step 2: Requesting PWD from DOL
After establishing the job details, you must submit a prevailing wage determination (PWD) request to the DOL. DOL will then determine the prevailing wage for the job position based on the geographic location that it is in, its duties, minimum requirements, and other such details. If a collective bargaining agreement governs the said prevailing wage determination, then the DOL will need to see proof of this.
This documentation sets a minimum wage that the employer in question must pay its employee when the employee becomes a legal PR holder in the United States of America. This application step generally takes anywhere from 4 to 5 months.
Step 3: Conduct Recruitment
After the PWD is received, immigration advertising can begin. These ads can easily be placed as a test in the labor market. The labor market test which is conducted for PERM must conform in every way with the rules laid out by the DOL. This stage can take anywhere from 2 months to more.
Step 4: Submitting PERM to the Department of Labor
After the end of the recruitment period where the employer has been unable to find any able, willing, and qualified U.S. citizens for its job, they must prepare to file the ETA form 9089 PERM application with the Department of Labor. The processing of this particular application takes approximately 8 to 9 months but depending on the global conditions (such as the COVID-19 pandemic) can potentially take significantly longer. This estimate does not cover auditing. If your file has been chosen for auditing, there is no telling how long it could take.
Step 5: I-140
This step involves sending a petition to the USCIS to ask them to classify your employee as an immigrant worker. During this stage, both the employer and employee must show proof that they meet all the job requirements. This petition can only be applied with the Labor Certification Approval notice that only comes with a validity of 180 days. The processing of this application can take up to 8 months.
Step 6: Priority Date -> Current Date
This is the waiting period after your I-140 petition has been approved. If the priority date is not anywhere within the next three months, then the most your advisors can do is to monitor legislation and regulatory developments made by the DOL and USCIS until the waiting period is complete.
Step 7: File I-485
This is a personal green card application that the employee and their direct family members can file. As long as the priority date is current, this application can be filed simultaneously as the I-140 application. The work and travel cards typically arrive within 4 to 5 months.
Step 8: Biometric Appointment
After filing the paperwork, you may receive a biometric appointment letter in 1 or 2 months. You can do this at your nearest USCIS office.
Step 9: Attend Your Interview
Approximately after a year of filing your paperwork, you may receive an interview notice. The wait times may vary depending on the scheduling of existing interviews at the USCIS offices. Depending on how well you do, you should have your green card anywhere from 2 to 3 months after clearing the interview with the officer.
These steps are many, but the only complicated one out of the lot is Step 4, where you file your PERM application with the DOL. Be wary of any mistakes you make, including typing and spelling errors, as they can end up with the rejection of your application altogether.
