CASE: PERM Labor Certification
EMPLOYER: Taekwondo (Martial Arts) School
BENEFICIARY: Korean
LOCATION: Erie, PA
Our client is a former Taekwondo athlete, who is working as a Taekwondo coach who had a Taekwondo school willing to petition him for a second-preference petition (I-140). Our client has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in a related field and has coaching experience.
Ever since he came to the United States, he has maintained his status as an O-1 visa holder. However, he had previously applied for a green card application (Based on the EB-11 category) which was denied by the USCIS.
After talking to our client, our firm concluded that his potential employer can petition him as a Taekwondo Head Coach. Second preference petitions for Koreans are current, which means that if a PERM Labor Certification for a second preference position gets approved, the I-140 and I-485 could be filed simultaneously. Based on our client’s educational, professional and working background, our office determined that he is eligible for EB-2 classification for his I-140 petition. Our client eventually retained us in June 2012.
Prior to filing PERM, our firm prepared the prevailing wage request, job order, advertisements, internal job posting, recruitment report, and all other steps which are important pre-PERM filing. Take note that the PERM application could be filed at least 60 days from the job posting date or 30 days from the last ad. Within a week from our retention, the prevailing wage request was filed. After we obtained the foreign degree evaluation report, our office filed the job order on October 5, 2012. On January 14, 2013, we filed PERM.
However, on June 10, 2013, the Department of Labor issued a request for audit. The DOL requested documents from Petitioner to determine whether the recruitment process was done properly. In response to the Audit request, our office prepared the response to Audit brief along with Employer’s declaration, notice of filing, and recruitment documentation on June 26, 2013.
Eventually, on May 13, 2014, the PERM Labor Certification was approved – an EB2 position for the Korean beneficiary. Now our client can file the I-140, I-485 green card application, and I-765 simultaneously.