CASE: I-485 Adjustment of Status / EB-3 I-140
EMPLOYER: Public School District in Mohave Valley, AZ
APPLICANT: Filipina Elementary School Teacher in Laughlin, NV
Our client has an employer willing to do an I-140 Petition for her. Our client has a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education, a valid Arizona Teaching license, and has worked for her current employer since July 2014. Based on our client’s education and work background, she is eligible for EB-3 classification for her I-140 petition. We were retained in June 2019.
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 PW determination, our office filed the job order on October 14, 2019. On January 10, 2020, we filed PERM.
On July 29, 2020, the Department of Labor issued an 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 August 14, 2020.
On December 21, 2020, the Department of Labor denied the PERM application due to non-receipt of the Audit response. In this case though, the 45-page audit response (including the audit, the cover letter, and all the supporting documents) was delivered by August 17, 2020, which was way before the deadline of August 31, 2020. Our office filed Motion to Reconsider to the Department of Labor on December 22, 2020. Eventually, on May 13, 2021, the PERM Labor Certification was approved – an EB3 position for the Filipina 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 June 10, 2021 via regular processing service. We also filed her I-485 adjustment of status application simultaneously since her priority date was current. On September 7, 2021, our office filed a premium processing upgrade request to the USCIS. On September 22, 2021, the I-140 EB3 Petition for our Filipina client was approved without any Request for Evidence (RFE). On April 27, 2022, the I-485 adjustment of status applications for our client and her family members were approved by the USCIS.