Double the happiness! Two Engineers Approved for I-140 Within Two Days

The most difficult part of the EB-2/EB-3 employment-based immigration application process is the PERM labor certification. This article will take you through the recruitment process of the labor certification application process.

Year: November 2019
Company industry: Manufacturing and sales of engineering accessories
Foreign staff: Philip & Edward
Birthplace: Netherlands
Position: Material Engineer & Electrical Engineer

Application timeline:
Philip and Edward entered the US company in the same year as Material Engineer and Electrical Engineer respectively. In 2014, they were lucky draw H-1B and approved, valid for 3 years. Before the H-1B expired in 2017, the company once again entrusted Zang Dikai (Tsang & Associates) to handle the extension of H-1B for two people; in August 2018, the company decided to apply for EB-2 green cards for the two to keep them Excellent engineer.

2017/08 H-1B extension approval, valid for 3 years;
2018/08 Communicate EB-2 job positions, job responsibilities, minimum job requirements, and salary;
2018/11 Submit Prevailing Wage (general salary) application;
2019/03 Prevailing Wage (general salary) approval, ready to recruit;
In May 2019, a series of recruitment advertisements such as “three out of ten” were published;
2019/06 The recruitment process is over, and there is no suitable local candidate, and the PERM labor certification application is officially submitted;
2019/09 PERM labor certification application approval;
2019/10 I-140 application preparation;
2019/11/18 Submit I-140 application (expedited) for two persons;
2019/11/20 Two I-140s were directly approved without supplementary documents.

Application Difficulties and Keys to Success:
1. Requirements for job responsibilities and work experience for EB-2 positions
When discussing the job requirements for EB-2 green cards, American companies require 2 years of work experience for applicants for this position, but Philip and Edward started working for American companies after graduating from their masters, and all their work experience comes from this company. Since the H-1B position is the same as the EB-2 position, if the company’s requirements for the work experience of the EB-2 position are followed, both of them have the question of using “on-the-job” experience, and they should answer “foreigner” when applying for the PERM labor certification Is the experience that the beneficiary uses to meet the minimum requirements of the position from working for the same employer in essentially the same position?” If yes, it is easy to be audited and lead to rejection.

For this reason, Zang Dikai and the law firm (Tsang & Associates) communicated repeatedly with the company’s HR on this issue, and proposed to modify the EB-2 application position and job responsibilities, or modify the work experience requirements. Ultimately, U.S. companies decided to drop the work experience requirement. But without this point, if the job advertisement is published, it is very likely to attract more people to submit their resumes and increase the difficulty of recruitment.

Zang Dikai United Law Firm (Tsang & Associates) commented: If the work experience of the foreign employee comes from the same employer, 50% of the responsibilities and job content of the EB-2/EB-3 position and the H-1B position are the same, and these two positions will be considered Identified as substantially comparable positions. If the EB-2/EB-3 position does not want to be identified as being essentially the same as the current position, at least 51% of the job duties of the new position are different from the current position.

2. PERM labor certification recruitment
During the PERM labor certification application process, there will be a complex recruitment process , and the employer must prove that there are no suitable and willing American workers to fill the position applied for. The purpose is to prevent employers from hiring cheap foreign employees and reduce the employment opportunities of American employees; at the same time, it also protects the rights and interests of foreign employees to ensure salary levels, but the main principle is to protect domestic employees. Recruitment before the PERM labor certification application is as follows:

A. Internal recruitment advertisements in the company: post recruitment notices within the company for 10 consecutive working days;
B. Recruitment information (SWA Job Order): publish 30-day recruitment information on the state government website;
C. Two Sunday newspaper job advertisements;
D. For positions requiring a bachelor’s degree or higher, employers must, in addition to the above activities, choose three of the following ten recruitment activities:
1. Participate in job fairs (Job Fairs);
2. Post job advertisements on employer websites;
3. Publish recruitment advertisements on other recruitment websites;
4. On-campus recruitment;
5. Recruitment through trade or professional organizations;
6. Recruitment through employment agencies or headhunting companies (private employment firms);
7. Employee referral program (employee referral program);
8. At a campus placement office;
9. Advertise in local newspapers;
10. Recruitment for radio or television advertisements.

For all recruitment activities, employers must properly keep relevant evidence data in order to meet the possible future audit requirements of the Ministry of Labor.

You must wait 30 days after the recruiting event ends before filing a PERM labor certification application.

After receiving the results of Prevailing Wage (prevailing wages), Tsang & Associates immediately began to assist employers in preparing job advertisements. Due to the high professional requirements of the position, even if no work experience is required, the resumes received are still very few. After several rounds of recruitment, no suitable local applicants were finally found, and the recruitment process ended smoothly. In June, we raced against time to submit the PERM labor certification application.

In September, we received the good news that the PERM labor certification was officially approved, and then we submitted the I-140 application in November. After choosing expedited, we received an email notification within three days: two cases of I-140 were directly approved without supplementary documents. A few days later, I successfully received the I-797 paper approval notice.

The American company and Philip & Edward were very happy to receive such good news on the eve of Thanksgiving. Thanks to us for providing professional and high-quality legal services in the past few years, so that the company can recruit talents and employees can continue to work and live in the United States with peace of mind. The company creates more value.

*To protect customer privacy, customer names are pseudonyms.