CASE: I-140 (EB-3 Category)
EMPLOYER: Public School District
BENEFICIARY: Filipino Special Education Teacher
LOCATION: New Town, ND
Our client has a current employer that was willing to petition for a third-preference I-140. Our client has a Bachelor’s degree in Special Education, a valid North Dakota Teaching license, and has worked for his current employer since November 2018. Based on our client’s education and work background, our office determined that he is eligible for EB-3 for his I-140 petition. Our client eventually retained us in April 2021.
Before filing PERM, our firm prepared the prevailing wage request, job order, advertisements, internal job posting, recruitment report, and all other important pre-PERM filing steps. Within a week of our retention, the prevailing wage request was filed. After we obtained the PW determination, our office filed the job order on September 29, 2021. On December 23, 2021, we filed PERM.
On August 2, 2022, the Department of Labor issued a request for an audit. The DOL requested documents from the Petitioner to determine whether the recruitment process was done properly. In response to the Audit request, our office prepared the response to the audit brief along with the employer’s declaration, a notice of filing, and recruitment documentation on August 9, 2022. On December 9, 2022, the PERM Labor Certification was approved – an EB3 position for the Filipino beneficiary.
We then proceeded with the I-140 Petition filing. We submitted the “ability to pay” letter for the I-140 petition application, along with other supporting documents.
The I-140 Petition was filed on January 19, 2023 via regular processing service. On March 8, 2023, the USCIS issued a Request for Evidence (RFE) and asked our client to prove the “ability to pay.” Our office prepared and filed the Response to RFE on March 20, 2023. On April 11, 2023, the I-140 EB3 Petition for our Filipino client was approved. His I-485 adjustment of status application was concurrently filed with the I-140 petition in January 2023. It will be approved soon.