If you are considering, or already have
applied for a green card, you no doubt have heard the term “priority date.” This
date determines when you will be eligible for an immigrant visa. Though
priority dates apply to both family and employment immigration matters, I will
focus only on the latter here.
As you can imagine, the earlier your priority
date, the sooner you can receive your green card. Your priority date is like
the number you have on your ticket when you visit the delicatessen counter of a
supermarket in the U.S., or when you visit, for example, a Bank of China branch
office. Those with numbers lower than yours will be served first, while you
will have to wait your turn until your number is called. Your green card
priority date operates the same way. In turn, your priority date depends on the
type of employment green card process you have.
Employment immigration occurs via as many as
three steps. In many cases, the first step is a labor certification, a process
by which your employer certifies an inability to find able, willing, qualified and available U.S. workers for the job
the employer is offering to you. Then, assuming the government approves the labor certification,
the second step involves the filing of an immigration petition for alien
worker, via form I-140. If this petition is approved, then the third and final
step for a green card is either an adjustment of status, via form I-485 (if you
wish to receive your green card without leaving the U.S.) or via consular
processing (if you are outside the U.S., or you leave the U.S.) at a U.S.
consulate or embassy.
Note that some employment immigration
situations do not require a labor certification, that is, they involve only the
latter two steps mentioned above. Such situations are any “first preference”
employment petitions (extraordinary ability aliens, outstanding researchers or
professors and multinational executives or mangers) plus those seeking a national
interest waiver.
Regardless of your type of employment green
card process, you receive a priority date only if and when your I-140 petition
is approved. Once that approval occurs, then your priority date would be the filing
date for your
- - labor certification, if your green card process
required a labor certification
- - immigrant petition I-140, if your green card
process did not require a labor certification
In another post, I will explain how to
estimate how long you must wait for your green card.
You are welcome to contact me at csun@calvinsun.com.