Urgent Help Requested - I-140

[tonyc001]

Dear Friends -

I need urgent help in my wife's case. I am in Oregon and she works in Atlanta, GA. I have a green card and she is on a H-1B visa with her employer. She has a bachelors in engineering with 7-8 years of work experience. Her employer has given her a approved labor which was in EB3 category. Her lawyer is filing her I-140 in Vermont in EB3 category in Vermont Service Center. The labor is for Sep 2002. My questions are as below:

- Even though the labor was EB3 labor, can they still file her I-140 in EB2 category.?

- Her lawyer told us that her I-485 cannot be filed since the dates are not current.Is that true? Can anyone help understand when the dates would be current? When can she file her I-485?

- What are the approval times these days for I-140 and I-485 in Vermont?

I will appreciate some urgent help here since her lawyer is going ahead with her I-140 filing on Tuesday and I wanted to ensure if we can somehow change it to EB2.

Any other help and guidence would be appreciated. We are shuttling every weekend and I am trying to just get over this mess of immigration. I am refresing the window every 2 hrs to see any responses from experienced gurus. Thanks for your help.

Regards

TJ

 

[H1BneedGC]

Dear Friends -

I need urgent help in my wife's case. I am in Oregon and she works in Atlanta, GA. I have a green card and she is on a H-1B visa with her employer. She has a bachelors in engineering with 7-8 years of work experience. Her employer has given her a approved labor which was in EB3 category. Her lawyer is filing her I-140 in Vermont in EB3 category in Vermont Service Center. The labor is for Sep 2002. My questions are as below:

- Even though the labor was EB3 labor, can they still file her I-140 in EB2 category.?

- Her lawyer told us that her I-485 cannot be filed since the dates are not current.Is that true? Can anyone help understand when the dates would be current? When can she file her I-485?

- What are the approval times these days for I-140 and I-485 in Vermont?

I will appreciate some urgent help here since her lawyer is going ahead with her I-140 filing on Tuesday and I wanted to ensure if we can somehow change it to EB2.

Any other help and guidence would be appreciated. We are shuttling every weekend and I am trying to just get over this mess of immigration. I am refresing the window every 2 hrs to see any responses from experienced gurus. Thanks for your help.

Regards

TJ

TJ,

The category in which you can file I-140 is dependent on the requirements of Labor. Looking at your post, the labor has been filed in EB3 which means your wife's I-140 can only be filed in EB3 (it doesn't matter if your wife has the education/experience which fits her in EB2). Labor Certification drives I-140 filing category.

The lawyer is correct...if she is from a retrogressed country and belongs to EB3 (which she is based on the labor), you cannot file her 485 now till the priority dates become current (right now the PD for EB3 for retrogressed countries is 06/01/2002). Since the PD of the labor being substituted for her is Sept 2002...I think she is just couple of months off...probably in 2-3 months, her dates would become current and she will be in a position to file 485. But this shouldn't stop her from filing her I-140...that way...who knows by then her I-140 will be cleared....VSC is pretty fast in I-140s.

So go ahead and file her I-140 and wait to see the dates becoming current..so as to file I-485. I am sure..when her dates becomes current, her 485 will be processed soon.

Good Luck.

Hope this answers your questions.

Guys, any other thoughts???