How to Become a US Legal Resident Sponsored by Your Employer

Permanent residents are not protected from deportation.

People with permanent resident status in the U.S. are not American citizens. They retain citizenship in their home country but are considered immigrants to the U.S. and have the legal right to live and work here indefinitely. Permanent residents can open a business in the U.S. or join the armed forces. However, they cannot vote, hold elected office or draw government benefits. Although permanent resident status can be attained in several ways, employer sponsorship is one common path.

Instructions

1. Ask your employer to sponsor you as a permanent resident of the U.S. Sometimes professionals of outstanding achievement, such as highly skilled physicians, eminent scientists, researchers or well-known artists can become permanent residents without a lengthy application process, but this is not the norm.

2. Confirm through your employer that there are no available, qualified U.S. citizens to do the job you've been offered, and that hiring you will not hurt the wages of U.S. workers in comparable jobs. The U.S. Department of Labor will require your employer to make a good-faith effort to advertise your position both within the company and publicly outside of it.

3. Ask your employer to submit a PERM labor certification application to the DOL, if there are no U.S. citizens to do the job. Assuming that you're approved -- and it may take months -- ask your employer to file a visa petition.

4. Obtain the proper visa. When your visa petition has been approved, you can apply for a green card, according to the NOLO website. If you're in the U.S. legally, you can do this through an Adjustment of Status procedure, or, if you're overseas, through consular processing.

Tips & Warnings

• With some exceptions -- primarily academic and industrial research positions -- the application process for permanent resident status can take a few months, or 2 years or more, depending on your qualifications and the backlog.

References

• University of Pennsylvania: Overview of Permanent Residence
• Legal Zoom: Obtaining Permanent Residency
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: Green Card Through a Job
• NOLO: Sponsoring a Worker for a Green Card