Advice needed! Help!

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xiaopang

Registered Users (C)
Hi, all, I know you guys are extremely knowledgeable, and I do have a very difficult situation right now and need your advice ASAP. Please help !

My RIR was filed in March '05 and now stuck in Philly. Since I am EB2, the retrogression seems to be making decent progress. I am worried that my LC could end up holding up the process when the PD becomes current.

So I tried to have my company convert my RIR to a PERM. I believe I can retain my PD as long as I am still being hired for the same position. My salary went up in the past year but I am doing the same job I was hired to do.

My HR manager refused to do it. She happens to be a very difficult person, and she is saying: 1) i could lose my PD, 2), I could be rejected because PERM is stricter than RIR. I don't trust the immigration lawyer, who is brainwashed by the HR manager.

So, anyway, we will have an all hands conference call tomorrow morning to discuss this issue (my direct boss is on my side and will be on the call). And I would like to get some feedback from you guys here, and make sure I am not doing the wrong thing.

Question 1: what's the risk of me losing the PD if I convert to PERM?
Question 2: am I too optimistic about the retrogression or too pessimistic about RIR backlog elimination? I mean if Philly can approve the RIRs soon enough, I could just wait, but they have not shown any signs of promise at all so far.

Any input is welcome.
 
Xiaopeng, not to be discouraging, but you have an uphill battle in front of you. I went thru the same notion last fall, only ended up changing job so I didn't have to deal with the dead-beat HR and lawyer any more. I had a RIR in Dallas with PD 8/04 and the company paid all the fees.

It is good to have your boss on your side. However, it takes a lot of coordinations between your HR and lawyer to convert your RIR to PERM. If both of them are reluctant (imcompetant to be exactly), and you don't have any confidence (trust) in them, I suggest you think twice before pursuing the conversion. Alternatively, you could ask your HR to start a brand new PERM for you, so you have the choice to use the LC whichever gets appoved first. As things start to happen in the congress, I don't feel the PD is as important as it was a half year ago.

Good luck.

xiaopang said:
Hi, all, I know you guys are extremely knowledgeable, and I do have a very difficult situation right now and need your advice ASAP. Please help !

My RIR was filed in March '05 and now stuck in Philly. Since I am EB2, the retrogression seems to be making decent progress. I am worried that my LC could end up holding up the process when the PD becomes current.

So I tried to have my company convert my RIR to a PERM. I believe I can retain my PD as long as I am still being hired for the same position. My salary went up in the past year but I am doing the same job I was hired to do.

My HR manager refused to do it. She happens to be a very difficult person, and she is saying: 1) i could lose my PD, 2), I could be rejected because PERM is stricter than RIR. I don't trust the immigration lawyer, who is brainwashed by the HR manager.

So, anyway, we will have an all hands conference call tomorrow morning to discuss this issue (my direct boss is on my side and will be on the call). And I would like to get some feedback from you guys here, and make sure I am not doing the wrong thing.

Question 1: what's the risk of me losing the PD if I convert to PERM?
Question 2: am I too optimistic about the retrogression or too pessimistic about RIR backlog elimination? I mean if Philly can approve the RIRs soon enough, I could just wait, but they have not shown any signs of promise at all so far.

Any input is welcome.
Click to expand...
 
Two of my coworkers were in the same situation as you and both filed for PERM with totally different outcomes.

Case 1) Filed for PERM but did not withdraw the RIR application (don't know how he managed this). The RIR application came through before the 60 days of PERM and they withdrew the PERM application. Was able to file for 140 and 485 just before retrogression took effect. Has 140 approved and is awaiting 485.

Case 2) Filed for PERM and that triggered withdrawal of RIR application (his PD was in 2002 and labor was pending for 3 years). PERM application was rejected and he is now back to where he started.

My suggestion is that if you insist on PERM, then try to find out how you can maintain BOTH labor applications - then use which ever comes first and makes more sense at that time. I don't know how you can maintain both applications, but some of the more knowledgeable members will be able to help you here.

xiaopang said:
Hi, all, I know you guys are extremely knowledgeable, and I do have a very difficult situation right now and need your advice ASAP. Please help !

My RIR was filed in March '05 and now stuck in Philly. Since I am EB2, the retrogression seems to be making decent progress. I am worried that my LC could end up holding up the process when the PD becomes current.

So I tried to have my company convert my RIR to a PERM. I believe I can retain my PD as long as I am still being hired for the same position. My salary went up in the past year but I am doing the same job I was hired to do.

My HR manager refused to do it. She happens to be a very difficult person, and she is saying: 1) i could lose my PD, 2), I could be rejected because PERM is stricter than RIR. I don't trust the immigration lawyer, who is brainwashed by the HR manager.

So, anyway, we will have an all hands conference call tomorrow morning to discuss this issue (my direct boss is on my side and will be on the call). And I would like to get some feedback from you guys here, and make sure I am not doing the wrong thing.

Question 1: what's the risk of me losing the PD if I convert to PERM?
Question 2: am I too optimistic about the retrogression or too pessimistic about RIR backlog elimination? I mean if Philly can approve the RIRs soon enough, I could just wait, but they have not shown any signs of promise at all so far.

Any input is welcome.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks, guys, for your input. Just to provide a bit more info: the immigration lawyer is from Fragomen, supposedly a top firm in the country, so if they agree to do it, I suppose they will try to get it done. They are just a bit brainwashed by the HR manager, and are a bit too conservative.

So I guess the question is really two fold: whether I can keep PD, and whether the PERM may be rejected.

I do agree with i for a change, that PD is probably less important these days, if they can pass a new law. Besides if the conversion is done right, I can keep the PD. I am hoping the lawyer knows what she is doing.

I do know they did a PERM for a colleague who is essentially in the same position/qualification as me, except he is from Canada (our company does some China business, so in my PERM they can say we are hiring someone also with language and culture background, which the Canadian guy doesn't really have (unless there is a Canadian language and culture;-))). Overall, I think I do have a strong case, top school, 3 yrs experience at a top company in the industry with some high profile projects, pay is probably 20%-30% more than industry standard. Also our Dept is very short staffed now, so even if someone qualified responds to the PERM ad, my company can probably hire him and still keep me. I suspect that is helpful too, but I am not really a PERM expert, so these are just my speculation.

So Global Goonda, do you know why your colleague's PERM was rejected?

BTW, I don't think the lawyer will agree to keep both applications alive, even if it's practically doable. Fragomen is very conservative and probably wouldn't do anything out of the rules (at least not for me;-)).
 
i hear you!

i am in the exact same boat.
Our stupid immigration lawyers panicked and filed RIR (EB2 India) in march 05 to avoid filing PERM and told me no one knows what PERM is going to be like so lets file RIR now and see later on. Now after one year when my RIR is somewhere in BEC, i talked to them about doing a PERM and they refused.reasons:
1) it's too risky, might get rejected
2) you might end up exposing other candidates to your new application
3) you will lose your PD
4) you are not a suitable candidate for PERM
5) it's not in the company's interest to spend money on your GC twice
All nothing but a bunch of excuses. i have 5 years of solid experience in my field before i joined this company..how on earth am i a risky candidate??
my manager is strongly on my side, she did a lot but the HR/Legal totally convinced her that it's not advisable.
i hate that you have to beg so much for a piece of your dream :(
 
My friend, that's EXACTLY what my lawyer said.

The funny thing is, whenever they weigh the risks of various options, they never seem to consider having to wait for MANY YEARS a risk. The lawyer literally said, "you could lose your PD if you convert now, how 'bout waiting for another 6 months because the backlog center will have some announcements of numbers?" I am like, so we are going to lose a sure 6 months for fear of POSSIBLY losing 1 year?

"Our stupid immigration lawyers panicked and filed RIR (EB2 India) in march 05 to avoid filing PERM and told me no one knows what PERM is going to be like so lets file RIR now and see later on."
 
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