CASE: I-140 (EB-2)
EMPLOYER: Korean Church
BENEFICIARY: Korean Pastor
LOCATION: Virginia
Our client is a senior pastor of a Korean church in Virginia, and currently does his ministry at this church under the H-1B status. This church is willing to petition him for a second-preference petition (I-140). Our client has a master’s degree in Divinity. After talking to our client, our firm concluded that his employer can petition him as a Pastor. Second preference petitions for Koreans are current, which means that if a PERM Labor Certification for a second preference position gets approved, the I-140 and I-485 could be filed simultaneously. Based on our client’s educational, professional and working backgrounds, our office determined that he is clearly eligible for EB-2 classification for his I-140 petition. Our client eventually retained us on December 15, 2014.
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 PERM could be filed at least 60 days from the job posting date or 30 days from the last ad. On March 4, 2015, the prevailing wage request was filed. After we obtained foreign degree evaluation report, our office filed the job order on May 4, 2015. On July 29, 2015, we promptly filed PERM. Eventually, on January 28, 2016, the PERM Labor Certification was approved – an EB2 position for the Korean 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 financial records, and other necessary supporting documents. The I-140 Petition was filed on June 14, 2016 via premium processing service. However, the USCIS issued Request for Evidence (RFE) on June 29, 2016 and requested the Petitioner’s audited balance sheet to demonstrate whether Petitioner has sufficient net current asset to pay proffered wage of beneficiary. On September 8, 2016, our office filed the Response to RFE to USCIS along with Petitioner’s 2015 audited balance sheet. Eventually, on September 16, 2016, the I-140 EB-2 Petition for our Korean client was approved. Our client can file his I-485 adjustment of status application once his priority date becomes current in October 2016.