CASE: I-485 Adjustment of Status / I-140 (EB-2 Category) / Schedule A
APPLICANT: Kenyan Nurse Practitioner
LOCATION: Minnesota
Our client is a certified nurse practitioner. His prospective employer was willing to petition him for a second-preference employment immigrant visa petition (I-140). Since he was a certified nurse practitioner, he was eligible for “Schedule A” classification.
The Department of Labor (DOL) maintains a schedule of occupations in its regulations, Schedule A included, for which the individual permanent labor certification procedure is not required. The schedule of pre-certified occupations is referred to as Schedule A, and is included in DOL regulations at 20 CFR 656.10. Based on an occupation’s inclusion on Schedule A, an employer may file an immigrant visa petition (I-140) directly with the (USCIS) without first going to the DOL for a labor certification. Usually, prior to filing I-140 petitions (EB-2 or EB-3 category), the employer must file a Labor Certification to the Department of Labor. However, for Schedule A cases, the employer does not have to go through the labor certification process. The position of Nurse Practitioner is included in Schedule A.
Our client has a Bachelors and Masters degree in nursing and is a certified Nurse Practitioner. Our office was retained and we filed the Prevailing Wage Determination immediately.
We filed the I-140 application on September 23, 2014 via regular processing. We included the job offer letter, the notice of filing, employment letter, and other necessary supporting documents. Moreover, we filed our client’s I-485 adjustment of status application concurrently with the I-140 petition.
In our cover brief, we included the “ability to pay” argument and why nurse practitioners must fall under Schedule A designation. On March 26, 2015, without any Request for Evidence (RFE), the USCIS Nebraska Service Center approved his EB-2 I-140 petition. Eventually, our client’s adjustment of status application was approved on June 3, 2015. Now, our client is a green card holder.