For employers
Green Card Sponsorship
Three routes to permanent residence for an employee, and the choice between them is worth making deliberately. Two of them skip the labor market test entirely, and a fourth doesn't require you to petition at all.
The categories
- PERM Labor Certification Prevailing wage strategy, recruitment design and documentation, ETA-9089 preparation, audit and supervised recruitment response.
- EB-2 / EB-3 Immigrant Petitions Immigrant petitions following labor certification, including ability-to-pay and successor-in-interest questions.
- EB-1B Outstanding Professor or Researcher Outstanding professors and researchers. No labor certification required.
- EB-1C Multinational Manager or Executive Multinational managers and executives. No labor certification required.
- EB-1A & NIW: Retaining Talent Without PERM EB-1A and the national interest waiver let certain employees petition for themselves, with no PERM and no job-offer commitment from you.
Three routes, and a fourth that isn't sponsorship
PERM, then filing of an EB-2 or EB-3 immigrant petition. The default, the most operationally demanding, and the one most employers assume is the only option.
EB-1B for recognized researchers and faculty, EB-1C for multinational managers and executives. You petition, but there is no labor market test, no recruitment, and no prevailing wage timeline.
EB-1A and the national interest waiver (EB-2 NIW) can be filed by the individual (self sponsored). No job offer and no labor certification.
Choosing between them
A rough decision order that gets most cases to the right question fast.
- Does the employee have a record of recognized achievement? Check EB-1A and NIW first; they can be faster when they fit.
- Is the employee a researcher or tenure-track faculty member with international recognition? EB-1B.
- Did the employee transfer in from a related entity abroad as a manager or executive? EB-1C.
- None of the above? PERM, and start earlier than feels necessary.
Timeline reality
Every route has two clocks: how long it takes to get the petition approved, and how long the employee then may have to wait for an immigrant visa number. The second clock depends on classification and country of birth (or spouse's country of birth), and for some employees it dominates everything else.
That is why the choice of category is not merely a paperwork question. A category that reaches approval a year later but assigns a better classification can deliver permanent residence years earlier.
Priority dates and country of birth
The priority date is the employee's "place in line", and it is generally established by the labor certification filing or the immigrant petition filing depending on route. It can often be retained across a later petition, which is one of several reasons to file something early even when the plan may change.
Country-of-birth backlogs are the single largest variable in planning, and they are worth checking against the current Visa Bulletin rather than against what was true two years ago.
Let's talk about your matter.
Consultations are scheduled directly with me. If you're facing a filing deadline say so first and I'll prioritize it.
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[email protected] · (508) 591-0775 · Kingston, Massachusetts