Filing I140 and I485 concurrently

[cynthiazhao]

Hi there,

My labor certification has recently been approved (finally). My company was supposed to file I140 and I485 concurrently as a next step but end up only filing I-140. The reason was that my current salary level is much lower than what they have projected nearly three years ago when filing my labor certificate.

I am currently considering taking an offer from another company, a sister company of my current company. Though my labor certificate and I-140 were filed both under my current company, I was informed that my greencard process should continue since they both belong to the same parent company.

My questions are:

1. Do you think the greencard process won’t be impacted by moving to the sister company?
2. The new position has a different job title and job description (my current position, as stated in labor certificate, is half technical and new position is pure business). Do I need to worry about potential problems due to the change?
3. Since my new salary is close to the projected salary, can I ask my new company to file I485 concurrently?

Thank a lot for your help.

Cynthia

 

[PremChopra]

I don't see any problem in the process to continue if you join the new company on the other hand your job description needs to stay the same as mentioned in your labor/I-140 otherwise you might be in trouble if you want to use AC-21 later on. Also you should ask you company to file I-485 since it has not much to do with the salary whereas I-140 has.

If your green card process is going to stay with your old company in that case you are safe but if you will be shifting your gc process to your new company then you will be in trouble because of non matching job description.

 

[cynthiazhao]

Further clarification

Thanks for your advice. I would like to clarify a few more points:

1. Transfer of Petition Employer

After I joined the new company, my green card process should be “transferred” over to my new company. The HR person of the new company only told me that they have handled similar cases like this. Since both the old company and new company belong to the same parent company, my case should be able to transfer to the new company without much impact on the progress. How the transfer is going to be done was not explained to me in details so that I am still a little bit nervous. If not for the problem of different job description, do you think there will be a problem with regard to transfering my case?

2. Job description

Yes both my labor certificate and I-140 carries my old job title and job description. I have pointed out the potential problems caused by different job descriptions to my new company. They said if necessary they could maintain my old job title and job description on my offer letter. Is it necessary/sufficient to do so? When and how will I be asked to verify my job title and description down the path? What kind of documents do the new company or I have to provide with regard to the job?

3. Concurrent filing of I-485 and I-140

Can you explain more about “I-485…has not much to do with the salary whereas I-140 has…” Previously the HR person from my current company told me that it is best to take two separate steps and wait till after I-140 is approved/I-485 is filed to explain the gap between my actual salary and projected salary on my labor certificate. He said we would be in a worse situation to argue NOW about salary gap if filing two steps concurrently. That is why they went ahead to only file I-140 with my current salary. Therefore I had the impression that I-485 is very much related to salary. I did some research today and found on when filing I-485, the company has to supply an employer letter indicating that the job is still available to me with my salary stated.

Of course, if my case if transitioned smoothly to my new company, I may be in a position to file I-485 since my salary is higher (close to the projected salary on my labor). I assume your answer is yes when I asked the question that if I can ask my new employer to file 1-485 though I-140 has been filed already.