U.S. Citizenship For Dummies. Jennifer Gagliardi

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СКАЧАТЬ receives 28.6 percent of the yearly worldwide employment visa pool, plus any unused first and second preference category visas. Unless the job qualifies for a Schedule A designation, or as one of the shortage occupations in the Labor Market Information Pilot, all third preference petitions must be accompanied by a labor certification.

      

The Labor Market Information Pilot Program defines up to ten occupational classifications in which the United States has labor shortages. For aliens within a listed shortage occupation, a labor certification will be deemed to have been issued for purposes of an employment-based immigrant petition.

The Department of Labor delegates authority to the USCIS to approve labor certifications to occupations in the Schedule A Group — Group I includes physical therapists and professional nurses; Group II includes aliens of exceptional ability in the sciences and arts (except the performing arts).

      Within the third employment-based preference group are three subcategories:

       Skilled workers are persons capable of performing a job requiring at least two years’ training or experience.

       Professionals must hold a U.S. baccalaureate degree or a foreign equivalent degree. Unfortunately, a combination of some education and experience cannot be substituted for the actual degree in order to qualify.

       Other workers are those persons capable of filling positions requiring less than two years of training or experience.

      Note that the third preference category usually generally becomes oversubscribed or backlogged before the higher categories. Also, the “other worker” subcategory of third preference generally becomes oversubscribed or backlogged before the skilled or professional worker categories.

      

You can track visa availability trends by referring to past issues of the Visa Bulletin. Find an online archive at travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin.html.

      Fourth preference: Special immigrants

      Special immigrants receive 7.1 percent of the yearly worldwide limit. Thirteen subgroups qualify as special immigrants, the most notable of which is the religious worker special immigrant. Other special immigrants include certain juveniles and battered spouses, certain overseas employees or retirees of the U.S. government, certain members of the U.S. armed forces, certain current and former employees of the Panama Canal Company, retired employees of international organizations, and certain dependents of international organization employees.

      The religious worker category receives 5,000 of the allotted special immigrant visas. Religious workers are those who will work for a religious denomination that has a bona fide nonprofit religious organization in the United States and who are coming to work as ministers of religion, to work in a professional capacity in a religious vocation, or to work in a religious occupation. The worker must have been a member of this religious denomination and must have worked for the denomination for at least two years before applying for admission to, or adjustment of status in, the United States.

      Fifth preference: Immigrant investors

      Employment creation investors receive 7.1 percent of the yearly employment visa total. To qualify in this category, be prepared to invest about $1.8 million (or the U.S. dollars equivalent in your currency), depending on the employment rate in the geographical area where you will set up business. Your U.S. enterprise will also need to create at least ten new full-time jobs for U.S. citizens, permanent resident aliens, or other lawful immigrants, not including you and your family.

      

If you plan on establishing a business in an area of high unemployment, you may only have to invest $900,000 to qualify for the fifth preference.

Discovering Other Ways to Qualify for Permanent Residence

      What if you don’t qualify for family- or employment-based immigration? Are there other ways you can gain lawful permanent residence in the United States? Thankfully, yes, but only under some specific conditions and restrictions.

      Immigrating through asylum

      If you are a potential immigrant already in the United States (legally or illegally) or you’re applying for admission at its borders, you may petition the government for asylum by demonstrating you have a “well-founded fear of persecution” in your home country, based on race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political opinion. Proving you belong in one of these protected categories can be complicated, because the legal definitions of well-founded fear and persecution are vague at best. We strongly recommend you seek the advice of a qualified immigration attorney. (You can find out more about hiring qualified and ethical help in Chapter 7.)

      In most cases, if you’re seeking to enter the United States and you indicate a desire to seek asylum, the Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) places you in expedited removal, where an asylum officer from the USCIS determines whether you have a credible fear. If the asylum officer determines that you do have a credible fear, you’re allowed to apply before an immigration judge (who is part of the Department of Justice).

Although the USCIS won’t grant work authorization for the first 150 days after the filing of an asylum claim (unless, of course, asylum is granted in the meantime), work authorization is automatic for cases on the docket longer than 180 days — as long as you’re not the one who caused the delay.

      

Be sure to file your asylum application within one year after entering the United States. Failing to file the application on time can result in rejection of the claim and removal from the United States. After one year, applications will only be considered in certain cases of changed or extraordinary circumstances. You may still be eligible for withholding of removal, but it is only a temporary form of relief, from which you cannot gain permanent residence.

      

If you have held asylum status for at least one year, you may be eligible to adjust your status to lawful permanent resident by filing an application to adjust status (currently Form I-485). You will be required to provide evidence that you were physically present in the United States as an asylee for at least a total of one year prior to filing the adjustment of status application. For this reason, keeping important paperwork throughout the immigration process is essential. Examples of documents that can help prove physical presence include

       A copy of your USCIS or DHS Arrival-Departure Record (Form I-94), obtained when you first entered the country

       A clear copy of the letter granting your asylum status

       Any documentation of the conditions being removed (if you were originally granted conditional asylum)

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