CASE: I-485 (Based on EB-2 I-140 Approval)
CLIENT: Kenyan Nurse Practitioner
LOCATION: Akron, Ohio
Our client is a certified nurse practitioner, who is currently working at a nursing care company in Akron, Ohio under an OPT. Her employer was willing to petition her for a second-preference employment immigrant visa petition (I-140). Since she was 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 having to file a Labor Certification with the Department of Labor. 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. We argued that the position of Nurse Practitioner is included in Schedule A.
Our client has both a Bachelors and Masters degree in nursing. Our office was retained in May 21, 2013 and we started the Prevailing Wage Determination filing and other related matters.
We filed the I-140 application on September 17, 2013 via premium processing. We included the job offer letter, the notice of filing, her pay stubs, 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. On September 30, 2013, without any Requests for Evidence (RFE), the USCIS Nebraska Service Center approved her EB-2 I-140 petition.
When we filed her I-140 petition, the priority date for Kenyan nationals was current for the EB-2 category, thus we also filed her I-485 adjustment of status application concurrently. Eventually, on November 29, 2013, her adjustment of status application was approved by the USCIS. Also, her husband, who applied as a derivative, got his green card at the same time.