Salary for EB2 PERM

[santex24]

Hi,
This question was probably answered earlier....but I am not sure. My wife is working as a Software Engineer, has a Master's in Computer Science from a US university. The company has mentioned MS+6 months of experience as the minimum education and experience requirement. Her current salary is 60K per annum with a 20% bonus (of annual income). Attorney is saying that he can't proceed since the prevailing wage mentioned on the DOL website is 79K. He says the salary is too low if we mention Master's as the requirement and that the PERM application will be denied. Is this true? I understand GC is for a future position and that the prevailing wage must be paid after you get your GC. Of course, the company needs to demonstrate ability to pay the prevailing wage from the priority date. Can someone advise if we can proceed or under the current PERM system it will be denied as the attorney is claiming? Thanks!!

 

[lambda]

Question of below minimum wage salary does not arise at PERM stage so your attorney may not be correct to link them. He/She might have other concerns line job description does not support MS degree etc. But the question will arise in later stages of GC processing where they can send an inquiry to verify your wage. The wage has to be paid after GC is true but the delta of current and prevailing wage can not be so big as it is not reasonable for the company to give that kind of raise to alien. So you risk GC denial based on that difference. If I have to take a guess, maybe 3-5% wage difference can be safe.
Again this query will come I believe at third stage (not sure, may be second) so if she is going to be very close to min. wage by that time, 2-3 years, it might be okay. Other option is to talk to the company and ask them to bump her wage to min. wage in case of an RFE, generate 2-3 paychecks and then drop it back afterwords and you pay the difference. If you can get than approved, you can surely go ahead.

20% bonus is counted towards salary only if it is guarenteed is what I think. If it is guarenteed, her salary delta is just 10-12% (72K Vs 79K) and she has a good chance to bridge it in 2-3 years, assuming EB2 for your catogary will be current in 2-3 years. If it is current, you might have a problem in case PERM gets approved fast and your next stage is applied soon thereafter.