What are the different Employment based Green cards?
First (EB1): Priority Workers
Second (EB2): Members of the Professions Holding Advanced Degrees or Persons of Exceptional Ability
Third (EB3): Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Other Workers.
Fourth (EB4) : Special Immigrants/Religious Workers
Fifth (EB5): Investment/Employment Creation
What is a Priority Date?
Green card process start date is the Priority date. For employment-based applicants, it is the date on which labor certification was received or the date that the USCIS received the Form I-140 if the labor certification was waived.
How do I know my official priority dates ?
The I-140 approval notice will have offical the priority date.
Where does the priority date help ?
Priority date has to be current, for you to apply for I 485 or adjustment of status. Basically, priority date decides when you will get your green card and how far ahead or behind you are in the green card queue.
How do you I know the current priority date ?
what is being processed or to be processed is given in Visa Bulletin.
What is EAD ?
EAD is Employment Authorization Document. It has to be applied seperately after applying for I 485 on employment based green card. EAD allows you to work for the validity of the card -- it may be 1 year or 2 years depending on your status.
What is Advance Parole ?
Similar to EAD, this also should be applied seperately after applying for I 485. This is like visa that can be used to enter US on pending green card applications. Certain restrictions apply, you can use it only for emergency purposes.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. Its always better to do the green card process through an immigration lawyer and consult specifically on your case.
Hey Ambals,
ReplyDeleteIs there an order in Immigration categories. like EB1 will always get processed the quickest compared to EB5 or EB4?
There is no real order. Its all based on number of applicants for every category. For now, EB1, EB4 and EB5 -- are all going fast and good for India. EB2 has big back log for India and China. EB3 is the worst !!
ReplyDeleteHi Ganesh,
ReplyDeleteIf my present employer applies for a Green card and then if I switch companies, can I transfer my case to the new employer? or the process starts all over again?
~Vijay
Vijay -- Depends on what stage you are in. If your:
ReplyDelete1. I 140 is approved
2. I 485 is applied and is pending for more than 180 days
3. You find a same or similar job
4. You have a EAD card
when all these conditions satisfy, you can move to another employer and will be able to continue with the same green card.