New York City Employment-Based Green Card Lawyer

Helping Skilled Professionals Obtain Permanent Residency

Immigrating to the United States is a complicated process. As New York City Immigration lawyers, we work to simplify that process and help you move easily through the U.S. immigration system. Attorney Norka M. Schell at the Law Offices of Norka M. Schell, LLC is an aggressive immigration attorney with extensive experience in representing clients in obtaining employment base legalization. She has helped hundreds of foreigners to apply for employment authorization documents and hundreds of employers to secure employment-based immigration for their employees.

Whether you have a permanent offer of employment from a U.S. company or you are a U.S. employer who wants to bring foreign workers to work temporarily or permanently in the United States, or you are an immigrant investor it is important to become familiar with the complex employment-based immigration process.

Call our firm today at (212) 258-0713 or contact us online to schedule a consultation with our employment-based green card attorney.

EB-1 Category for Aliens of Extraordinary Ability

Without exception, the most popular and the most appropriate immigrant visa (green card) category for artistt, athetes and entertainers is the EB-1. The first employment-based immigration preference green card category (EB-1) covers “priority workers” whose skills and talents are important to the United States (i.e., those who possess “extraordinary ability” in their respectivie fields).

One of the most attractive aspects of the EB-1 category is that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will process an EB-1 petitioin solely on the merits of the individual, bypassing a U.S. Department of Labor certification that there are “no qualified” U.S. workers for a particular position. This makes the time spent processing an EB-1 application much shorter than for categories that do require a labor certification.

EB-2 Category for Aliens Exceptional Ability or With Advanced Degrees

Aliens of exceptional ability or with advanced degrees may apply for green cards through the second-preference employment category (EB-2). While a job offer and labor certification are generally required for this category, they are waived if an applicant can demonstrate that granting the EB-2 is in the national interest. There are two kinds of national interest waiver (NIW) applications available: the standard case and the physician NIW.

National interest can be demonstrated if the applicant can show that the work will, for example, provide key benefits such as: improving the U.S. economy; improving wages and working conditions for U.S. workers; or improving educational and training programs for U.S. children and underqualified workers.

EB-3 Category for Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Other Workers

The third employment-based preference serves as catchall category for aliens with job offers in the United States. Labor certification, or evidence that the U.S. Department of Labor has exempted persons in the alien’s occupation from individual labor certification, is required for all aliens in this category. A job offer is also required in very case, and the employer must file the preference petition on behalf of the alien to classify him or her in the third preference.

If The Foreigner Worker Is Outside the United States

When a foreigner worker is outside the United States, he or she can become a lawful permanent resident by applying at a U.S. Consulate office abroad through a process known as Consular Process. Consular processing is when USCIS works with the Department of State (“DOS”) to issue a visa to a foreigner based on the approved employment petition and availability of a visa number. The DOS publishes monthly a Visa Bulletin which shows the visa numbers available on that respective month.