Finding Your Place In Line For A 'Green Card'

For many foreign nationals living in the United States waiting to apply for a ‘green card’, a daily routine is to log-on to the U.S. Department of State website to check the status of their ‘priority date’ on the State Department’s ‘Visa Bulletin’.  Those who logged in yesterday were surprised to see the publication of the October 2015 Visa Bulletin with an extra Priority Date table.  But what does it mean? 

It’s a fairly significant new development.

But to grasp its significance, let’s take a step back to look at the big picture.

The U.S. Department of State regulates the issuance of ‘green cards’ based upon the distribution of immigrant visas around the world.  Since the demand for ‘green cards’ by natives of some countries (such as China, Mexico and India) is greater than the demand from other countries, there are not enough immigrant visas to supply the demand from these oversubscribed countries.  Consequently, there is a backlog of ‘green cards’ for these natives.

 Foreign nationals who originate from these countries must therefore ‘stand in line’ to wait to apply for their ‘green card’.  Their place in line is determined by the date the person either filed an immigrant visa petition – or an employer filed a labor certification application on this person’s behalf.  This date is known as a ‘Priority Date’.

Each month the U.S. Department of State publishes a ‘Visa Bulletin’ that charts the Dates of ‘green card’ applications being processed.  If a foreign national’s own ‘Priority Date’ is a date that precedes the ‘Priority Date’ published in the Visa Bulletin, that person is then eligible to file an application for a ‘green card’.  For example, if a foreign national has a ‘Priority Date’ of October 3, 2011, and the Priority Date shown on the Visa Bulletin for that person’s category shows January 1, 2012, then that foreign national may then apply for a ‘green card’.

Until the individual’s Priority Date precedes the Priority Date published in the Visa Bulletin, one could not file an application for a ‘green card’.   Until now…

The October 2015 Visa Bulletin offered a pleasant surprise for many:  a new, second chart known as a ‘Filing Date’ Chart.  Under this new provision, the U.S. Department of State will allow foreign nationals to file a ‘green card’ application based upon a new ‘Filing Date’ – rather than waiting for the date previously referred to simply as the ‘Priority Date’.  For most visa categories, the ‘Filing Date’ is more recent than the older ‘Priority Date’ (which is now also referred to as the ‘Final Action’ Date).

What this means is that the ‘Final Action Date’ is the date that the U.S. Department of State will actually process the ‘green card’ application.  This generally corresponds with the previous ‘Priority Date’ charts to which we were accustomed.  In other words, the U.S. Department of State will still wait until the foreign national’s ‘Priority Date’ is current before making a decision on the application – but the individual may now file the application well beforehand – based upon the new ‘Filing Date’ chart.

 Why is this important?  Because when a foreign national gets to file an Application for a ‘green card’, she may also concurrently file an application for Employment Authorization and Advance Parole (the ability to travel while the ‘green card’ application is pending).  In other words, ‘green card’ applicants from the oversubscribed countries may get some of the benefits that accompany a ‘green card’ application while still waiting in line for their ‘green card’ application to be processed.

So for example, this is how it might work: a foreign national from China in the EB-2 category (professional holding an advanced degree) may have a ‘Priority Date’ of June 12, 2013 based upon a Labor Certification Application filed on her behalf.  The ‘Priority Date’ / (Final Action Date) published in the October 2015 Visa Bulletin shows the Priority Date for that category to be January 1, 2012.  In previous months, this person would have to continue waiting until the Visa Bulletin shows a Priority Date in that category after June 12, 2013, before she could file an application – which may be a year or more away.  However, the new Visa Bulletin now shows a second ‘Filing Date’ chart that shows a date of May 1, 2014.  Since the foreign national’s ‘Priority Date’ precedes this new ‘Filing Date’, she is eligible to go ahead and file the ‘green card’ application.  Even though it still will not be processed until her June 12, 2013 Priority Date becomes current under the ‘Priority Date / Final Action Date, she can nonetheless go ahead and file the application and get Employment Authorization and Advance Parole for a family member(s) while they continue to wait in line for her Priority Date to become current.

The U.S. Department of State also asserts that allowing these foreign nationals to apply ahead of time will allow the State Department to more accurately predict the future availability of immigrant visas that will need to be processed.  Based upon the recent wild fluctuations in the Priority Dates for some of these categories in the past year, this can only be a good thing.

So, at the end of the day, these foreign nationals will still have to wait in line, as before – but at least they get to snack on some fairly significant benefits while standing there.

Experience Counts

Most of the employees I see coming to this country for professional jobs for my client employers want to become Lawful Permanent Resident, and, eventually, U. S. Citizens.  It is their goal not only to work here, but also to “live the dream”.  One of the first questions I get when filing for their L or H status is: “When can I get my ‘green card’?” 

For non-immigrant workers, that path to a green card often begins with the PERM Process, or the Permanent Labor Certification Process.  This is a process that must be initiated by an employer for an employee, and often employees will make that a condition of their employment during their hiring process.  A benefit of this process is that it takes into account the derivatives listed on the non-immigrant petition when the employee came to work in the United States.  Therefore, within one process, a non-immigrant worker, his/her spouse, and their minor children can all get their “green cards” at once.  Another benefit of this process is that if the filing is done within a certain time period, non-immigrant workers in H-1B status can extend their stay past the normal expiration date for a non-immigrant worker in H-1B status.  This is particularly important for those workers from one of the countries that have a waiting period before the actual lawful permanent resident application (Form I-485) can be filed. 

One of the most important steps in this process is the proof that the beneficiary of this process is qualified for the job for which the recruitment was done and the Labor Certification was issued.  An important part of that proof is the experience letter, which is the best and most useful documentation of the experience of the employee to be sponsored.  An experience letter is a letter from your previous employer(s) showing not only that the applicant has experience, but also that the applicant has the relevant experience for the job being offered.   Unfortunately for the applicant, that experience shouldn’t come from their current employer, even at another location.

As we work with the employers to obtain lawful permanent resident status for one of their employees, we will assist in the preparation of the experience letter to be sent to a previous employer.  The reason for this is that experience letters are more than just a matter of detailing that an employee worked somewhere and the dates of that employment, but also what that employee did while there to show that the employee has the experience required for the position.  Experience letters need to be on the letterhead of the previous employer, contain the name and contact information for the person signing the letter, the title and relationship to the employee of the person signing the letter, the start and end date of the employee’s employment, the title of the employee while at that company, whether the position was full or part-time, and a brief job description of the duties performed by the employee while at the company.  The job description should contain duties and tasks which are relevant to the position that employee has, or will have, with the employer who is sponsoring that employee for their lawful permanent resident status.   All of these elements should be in the experience letter as proper evidence of the employee’s experience and/or training.  If any of these elements are missing or lacking, USCIS can, and most likely will, reject the letter and conclude that the petitioner has failed to prove that the employee has the required experience or training.

These experience letters must be from a person who has direct knowledge of the actual work the employee performed while working for the previous employer.  This also needs to be a person who directed that work, not just a co-worker.  The best person to provide that experience letter will be a manager that was directly over the employee or their supervisor, either of whom is still working for the previous employer.  Other alternatives are managers or supervisors further up in leadership chain of the company who have managerial or supervisory responsibilities over the former employee’s direct manager and/or supervisor and are still with the previous employer.  Finally, if there are no managers or supervisors that were there when the employee was at the previous employer, then the letter can be signed by someone in the human resources department to confirm the dates of hire and the job duties for the position the previous employee was in.

However, some of the employee’s previous employers may have been acquired by another company in a merger or buyout.  This can create problems, but, with enough forewarning, steps can be taken to get a previous manager or supervisor, who is with the new company, sign an experience letter while providing USCIS enough information regarding why the information is being provided by the a new company.  This will allow USCIS to determine that the information from this new company is actually the same as if it had come from the previous employer.  This process, however, takes more time and can delay the filing of the I-140 if not started early in the PERM Process.

Another problem is when the previous employer is no longer in business.  Sometimes, if an employee is aware of his employer’s financial difficulties and is concerned over that employer’s viability to continue to do business, it is advisable to have that employer write an experience letter, detailing all of the information above, very shortly after the employee obtains new employment so that the employee is not stuck without the very valuable experience letter if the company closes.  When a company dissolves, the records are often lost or destroyed and there is no way to obtain an experience letter from that previous employer.  However, all is not lost.  USCIS has allowed for former managers or supervisors who are with new companies to write experience letters on behalf of a former employer since it is impossible to obtain an experience letter from that previous employer.  The requirements of the experience letter do not change, but the wording has to address why the letter is not from the previous employer, but rather from a different company where the employee had no previous contact and detailing that the previous employer is no longer in business.

While experience letters are not needed until the I-140 petition filing stage, we get them as soon as possible in the PERM Process.  Experience letters allow us to confirm exact dates of employment for the Labor Certification Application; to verify experience needed for the job being recruited for to make sure that the employee has the required experience for the job; and to determine if additional steps are going to have to be taken to get the experience letter that is needed due to some of the scenarios discussed herein.  The experience letter relates to the entire PERM Process; and experience counts.