Please help! Received two replies for advertisement for LC

[Kohinoor]

I finished my residency on an H-1 visa and started a job after an H-1 transfer. I applied for a green card via RIR. I had put an advertisement for Labor certification and two people replied for the position. What should I do? Does this happen often? Is it possible to get out of this? Thanks in advance. Any help is appreciated.

[wenwen]

What did your lawyer have to say? Or are you doing it by yourself.

[helmut]

Are the applicants GC holders or US citizens? Are they qualified for the job as described in your ad? If so, you will have to start again and maybe make your ad less attractive.
Good luck.
H.

[Martina]

You have to follow the instructions and see if the applicants are really interested in the job. Your employer should schedule an interview with them, give them a job offer and see if they take it. If they refuse the job after they see what it is, you submit the copy of their job interview and reason why they declined the offer. We had one person who sent a resume and never showed up for an interview.

[Kohinoor]

Thank you all for your input. Out of the two, one is a green card holder and one is a US citizen. Both of them already have a job and are not fresh residents. I do have a lawyer but still would have to go according to instructions and call them for an interview. Hope they do not show up!!

Kohinoor

[helmut]

I guess you may also pre-screen the candidates (or technically your employer should, since legally, you are not allowed to be involved in the recruitment process) and see if there is some legitimate reason for not hiring them even prior to the interview. If that can be documented in the recruitment report, you should be still okay. But keep in mind that for RiR, your employer\'s requirements cannot be too restrictive (no special requirements made just to fit your qualifications, foreign language skills that are not necessarily needed for the business, offering salary that is below the prevailing wage in your area, unfavorable working conditions, etc.)
The reasons for not hiring any of the candidates will need to be well documented and "legitimate". Ideally of course, the candidates would decline the job offer themselves. That would be the best scenario, easy to document. If nothing works, you may need to start the process all over again, since only advertisement within the preceding 6 months counts for RiR. No one will ever ask what happened before.

Let us know how things went.
H.

[MJ1]

Kohinoor,
Depending on what geographical area you are located in, you might be able to do a regular application instead of RIR and have very restrictive job requirements. Find out what the regular processing times are in your area DOL and if they are not bad, go for regular.
Another thing that some folks do is call up the applicants and find out why they are interested. You may be able to dissuade them somehow once they find out the purpose of the advertisement. Also you can find out what the prevailing wage for the position is and offer just that. Most folks won\'t be interested.
One thing I can tell you is to be proactive and find out as much info as you can. Don\'t rely on your lawyer to devise a solution, they sometimes are least interested and you are just another case for them.
Good luck
MJ1