All forms and fees are available on the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website.
I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker
Form I-140 is filed by the employer to request a specific classification under the employment-based system of immigrant classifications.
I-485 Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status
Form I-485 is filed by employee and dependents to acquire lawful permanent residence from within the United States. Before being eligible for adjustment of status, the appropriate preference category priority date must be current so that an immigrant visa is immediately available. The priority date is listed on the Notice of Action (Form I-797) approving the I-140. Priority dates are listed in the Visa Bulletin.
Paying Filing and Attorney Fees
Illinois Institute of Technology may sponsor an employee seeking employment-based Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) status. Illinois Tech must pay for any portion of the LPR process for which an employer is legally required to pay such as the employer labor certification costs. The employee is responsible for all other costs, including attorney fees, associated with the LPR process. A department may cover a portion or all of the employee’s costs and attorney fees if the department chair approves such expenditure.
Labor Certification
Employers are required to test the labor market—to ensure there are no minimally qualified American workers—prior to filing a labor certification with the United States Department of Labor (DOL). The labor certification is a finding by DOL that there are not sufficient U.S. workers in the geographic area of employment who are able, willing, qualified, and available to do the job in question, and that the employment of an alien will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.
Special Handling for Faculty
In some cases, the United States Department of Labor’s Program Electronic Review Management (PERM) regulations allow college and university faculty to use the results of the employer’s own competitive requirement procedure. This requires that the university filed a labor certification within 18 months of the date of the offer, that a competitive recruitment was conducted, and records retained with Human Resources. Consult with the selected attorney for further guidance and eligibility.