Ginnu,
The following Q & A gives opinion of one of the attorney on eligibility/ requirement from the employer in the event the beneficiary is laid off. What is your opinion on this, how safe it will be to submit job offer letter from the employer who laid off the employee/beneficiary ?
Q: From what is discussed on various blogs and immigration portals, If I understand correctly, so far as offer for I-140 job from petioner is open and benificary is willing to join and continue working for that job when PR is approved, benificiary is fine by submitting job offer letter in the event of RFE.
In your opinion does it matter if he was laid off by the petioner and is without job during pending AOS duration?
Thanks.
A: Fine in terms of validity of the permanent job offer, but not fine on the ability to pay issue.
If you were employed by the petitioner in the offered position at the time the I-140 was filed, and you have since been laid off, then a response to an RFE with a letter showing only a prospective job offer, insisting that they will hire you back on a full-time basis once residence is granted, may not be enough.
Given the current economy, USCIS may probe deeper in that scenario, since a likely motivation for the layoff could be a decline in the company's revenues or net earnings. Keep in mind that the petitioning employer has an obligation to prove its financial ability to pay the offered wage at all times while your case is pending, from the date the labor cert was filed, throughout pendency of the I-140 and the I-485. Submitting only a prospective job offer when they used to employ you full-time will raise the question of what has happened to the company's financial ability to pay you.
Given that this continuous burden of proving ability to pay throughout the entire pendency of your case goes away when you switch employers under portability (since a new employer cannot be responsible for the former employer's finances), if your I-140 is approved, and the i-485 has been pending for more than 180 days, then you may be better off with a new job offer in the same occupation from a different company.