CASE: I-140 (EB-2 Category) / Schedule A / Premium Processing
EMPLOYER: Hospital
BENEFICIARY: Korean Nurse Practitioner
LOCATION: Cleveland, Ohio
Our client is a certified nurse practitioner. Her current employer was willing to petition her for a second-preference employment immigrant visa petition (I-140). Since she is a certified nurse practitioner, she 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 on August 1, 2017, and we filed the Prevailing Wage Determination immediately.
We filed the I-140 application on January 18, 2018 via premium processing. We included the job offer letter, the notice of filing, employment letter, and other necessary supporting documents. In our cover brief, we included the “ability to pay” argument and why nurse practitioners must fall under the Schedule A designation.
However, on January 29, 2018, the USCIS Nebraska Service Center issued the Request for Evidence (RFE) for our client’s I-140 petition. The USCIS requested our client to submit her official transcript. Our office immediately filed Response to RFE with our client’s official transcript. Eventually, on February 8, 2018, the USCIS Nebraska Service Center approved her EB-2 I-140 petition. Since the priority date for Korean national is current for the EB-2 category, she is eligible to file her adjustment of status application now.