CASE: Adjustment of Status (EB-2 Category)
APPLICANT: Taiwanese Outpatient Services Clinician
LOCATION: Columbus, OH
Our client is a comprehensive children’s mental health and child welfare agency which was willing to petition an Outpatient Services Clinician position for a second-preference petition (I-140). Our client’s employee has a master’s degree in Social Administration and currently is working for them under H-1B status. After talking to our client, our firm concluded that this employer can petition her as an Outpatient Services Clinician. Second preference petitions for Taiwanese people 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 prospective employee’s educational, professional and working backgrounds, our office determined that she is clearly eligible for EB-2 classification for her I-140 petition. Our client eventually retained us on November 2, 2016.
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 PERM could be filed at least 60 days from the job posting date or 30 days from the last ad. On November 8, 2016, the prevailing wage request was filed. After we obtained determined prevailing wage, our office filed the job order on February 16, 2017. On July 14, 2017, we promptly filed PERM. Eventually, on December 4, 2017, the PERM Labor Certification was approved – an EB2 position for the Taiwanese beneficiary.
We then proceeded with the I-140 Petition filing. We submitted the “ability to pay” letter for the I-140 petition application. We included the job offer letter, employer’s tax records, and other necessary supporting documents. The I-140 Petition was filed on May 10, 2018 via premium processing service.
However, on May 15, 2018, the USCIS Nebraska Service Center issued Request for Evidence (RFE) and requested our client to submit the documents to show “ability to pay” and special skills for Beneficiary. On May 22, 2018, our office filed Response to RFE and stated that Petitioner’s net current asset figure is sufficient for proffered wage of Beneficiary. Moreover, we included the letter from the Petitioner regarding the proof that Beneficiary already obtained her special skills for the proffered position. Eventually, on June 4, 2018, the I-140 EB2 Petition for our Taiwanese client was approved.
Once her I-140 petition was approved, she retained our office again and determined to file an adjustment of status application for her. On July 17, 2018, our office filed an I-485 adjustment of status application for our client. Everything went smoothly and the receipt notices and fingerprint appointment came on time.
Prior to the interview, we thoroughly prepared our client via conference calls as well. On January 31, 2019, our client was interviewed at Columbus Ohio USCIS office. Eventually, her I-485 application was approved by the USCIS on January 31, 2019.