Permanent Residence

For UVA-sponsored permanent residence processes, please visit the Human Resources Compliance and Immigration Services website.

All information contained on this page is subject to change without notice.  Any information contained is provided as a courtesy to UVA students and scholars and is meant to serve only as an informational summary of existing U.S. government laws, regulations and/or guidance. Nothing on this page should be taken as legal advice.
Last updated 12/4/2007

Routes to U.S. Permanent Residence (Green Card or Immigrant Processes)

Permanent residence processes fall within the following four categories:

Family-based: Immigration through a close relative.  The most likely scenario for a family-based case is for a U.S. citizen to sponsor his or her husband, wife or qualifying child for permanent residence.

Employment-based: Immigration sponsored by an employer.  This category also encompasses unusual situations that need not involve an employer:

1. an alien of extraordinary ability;
2. an alien of exceptional ability in the national interest; or
3. an investor in U.S. business (usually at least $1 million and the creation of at least 10 jobs).

Diversity lottery: Nationals of specific countries are eligible to enter a lottery, where names are randomly drawn.  Winners of the lottery are eligible to apply for permanent residence.

Political asylee or refugee.

Employer Sponsorship

Labor Certification

In general, the first step of any employment-based immigration sponsorship is labor certification.  Labor certification is a test of the U.S. job market to confirm with the Department of Labor (DOL) that there are no willing, qualified and able U.S. workers to fill a foreign national’s position.

If the foreign national is of extraordinary or exceptional ability, an outstanding researcher or an intracompany transfer manager or executive labor certification may not be necessary.

PERM Labor Certification Applications

Instituted on March 28, 2005, the PERM (Program Electronic Review Management) Labor Certification Application infrastructure was an entirely new system for labor certification applications.  This system requires that the employer conduct specific recruitment prior to filing the application online.  In particular, the employer must advertise the foreign national’s position and carefully evaluate applications from U.S. workers.  The pre-filing tasks generally take about three months to complete.  Many PERM applications, once filed, are adjudicated in less than three months.

For some University positions, special processing is available whereby the University may utilize the national recruitment already conducted which resulted in the hire of the foreign national employee.

A foreign national is eligible for additional extensions of H-1B status beyond his or her six-year maximum if a labor certification application has been pending for 365 days or more when he or she will reach the six-year maximum.

Immigrant Visa Petitions

The second step of the permanent residence process is the immigrant visa petition (I-140).  This petition states that the employer would like to employ a particular foreign national on an indefinite basis, and it demonstrates why that foreign national is qualified for permanent employment.  For example, an immigrant visa petition based on an approved labor certification application will demonstrate that the foreign national meets the requirements for the labor certification application position.  In addition, the immigrant visa petition must demonstrate that the employer can pay the wage offered to the foreign national.  Immigrant visa petitions generally take less than six months to be adjudicated.

A foreign national is eligible for additional extensions of H-1B status in one year increments beyond his or her six-year maximum if an immigrant visa petition has been pending for 365 days or more when he or she will reach the six-year maximum.  A foreign national is eligible for an additional three years of H-1B status beyond his or her maximum if he or she is the beneficiary of an approved immigrant visa petition.

Immigrant visa petitions are separated into several categories.

EB-1 is for outstanding researchers, aliens of extraordinary ability and multinational managers and executives.

EB-2 is for individuals who will be assuming a position that requires at least a master’s degree (or a bachelor’s degree plus five years of progressively responsible experience) or individuals of exceptional ability (by USCIS standards) in the national interest. 

EB-3 is for an individual who will assume a position that requires at least a bachelor’s degree or two years of specialized training or experience.

There are also additional, less common categories not listed here.

Priority Dates and Immigrant Visa (or Green Card) Availability

The U.S. allows approximately 140,000 employment-based immigrants to become permanent residents each year.  The demand has exceeded the supply.  For many foreign nationals there is now a wait to apply for permanent residence.  To stem the flow of applicants for permanent residence, the USCIS has established cut-off dates.  In many categories, a foreign national is eligible to apply for permanent residence only if his or her “priority date” is current.  A foreign national establishes a priority date when a labor certification application for him or her is filed, or when an I-140 petition for him or her is filed.  Additionally, in general, a foreign national can keep the priority date of an approved I-140 petition regardless of whether or not he or she uses that I-140 to apply for permanent residence.

In general, the cut-off dates improve as one moves into a higher category.  For a current update of immigrant visa (or green card) availability visit: http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_1360.html. The notation of "c" indicates that the priority date is current and that numbers are immediately available.

Note that a foreign national can use the cut-off date that his or her spouse would receive.  For example, an individual born in India might be eligible to apply for permanent residence much sooner if his or her spouse was born in Canada.  This relief is known as “cross-chargeability”.

Adjustment of Status Applications

(Based on any of the routes to permanent residence outlined above.)

The final step of the permanent residence process is the foreign national’s application to become a permanent resident.  This process may be done at a U.S. consulate abroad, but it often makes sense for a foreign national to apply to adjust to permanent resident status while in the U.S.  Depending on the circumstances, individuals in many types of nonimmigrant visa classifications may be eligible to apply for adjustment of status, but their ability to travel abroad may be limited.

As noted above, an applicant is eligible to apply for adjustment of status only when there is an immigrant visa (green card) number available for him or her.  If a number is immediately available, the foreign national may submit his or her adjustment of status application (together with any dependents) at the same time that the immigrant visa petition is filed.  In the instance of a U.S. citizen spouse petitioning for his or her husband, wife or child, the foreign national beneficiary is always immediately eligible to file an adjustment of status application at the same time.  If an applicant files for adjustment of status, and, after filing, his or her priority date retrogresses (an immigrant visa number was available at filing, but becomes unavailable), that applicant’s application will not be adjudicated until it has a current priority date.

As part of the adjustment of status application, a foreign national is normally eligible to apply for employment authorization and travel authorization (called advanced parole).  These applications generally take less than three months to be adjudicated and are valid in one-year increments, renewable each year.

If 1) a foreign national’s employment-based adjustment of status application has been pending for 180 days, and 2) the accompanying immigrant visa petition is approved, that individual can carry or “port” his or her application to another employer (and will not need to re-start the permanent residence process) if he or she remains in the same or similar occupation.