Wage determination and timeline

nazar05

Registered Users (C)
Hi all. I have two questions,

1- Company's lawyer informed me today that they requested wage determination from SWA about a month ago and haven't heard back yet. Does anyone have any explanation for this? Is it the holidays or something went wrong do you think?

2- I've read most of the forum but still don't have a complete picture of the whole process. Can someone who knows kindly summarize the PERM process step by step, with approximate time estimates? I just would like to know what steps lie ahead (not just 90 days posting etc. but all steps, such as this SWA thing).

Thank you very much, your help is greatly appreciated.
 
Unsure thank you very much, yes that link is very useful, thank you for taking the time. I've read below that another person has also been waiting over a month for wage determination from SWA, so I guess it's acceptable for this period.

This whole waiting and "closed doors" thing will kill me I think before I see the GC!

Anyway thank you once again, I appreciate your help greatly.
 
Welcome to the waiting club! Recently I make conscious effort to think about someting else and not count days...
 
unsure said:
http://www.immig-chicago.com/CM/Employment-BasedImmigration/PERM page link 1.doc

This helps. I think the estimates are the best possible. We are 7 months into PERM preparation and have just started advertising ....


Hi,

we started the discussions about GC(Perm, I410, I485) on may 26/2006 with the company for EB2 category(M+0). My lawyer sent for prevailing wage on november 22...we recieved the PW on january 17/2007 form SWA. We put the AD(10lines) in NY-Times yesterday and today we sent the application to the DOL(job bank) for AD. If you gays want to know more than that fell free to ask...
 
Johnnymnemonic thank you for sharing your info. I guess I was naive to think that the GC process would get started as soon as my company decided to go ahead with it. So I see that you waited for the SAW for about 50 days, we're at that stage now. I'd really appreciate it if you could continue sharing updates in your case.

Unsure, same here my friend! But knowing that you're not the only who's waiting and waiting and waiting definitely helps.

Best of luck to all of us.
 
nazar05 said:
Johnnymnemonic thank you for sharing your info. I guess I was naive to think that the GC process would get started as soon as my company decided to go ahead with it. So I see that you waited for the SAW for about 50 days, we're at that stage now. I'd really appreciate it if you could continue sharing updates in your case.

Unsure, same here my friend! But knowing that you're not the only who's waiting and waiting and waiting definitely helps.

Best of luck to all of us.

My husband is software engineer. He has H1B and me H4 and it's ok for us to share about GC experience. I think it's ok to count work day not every day because maxim for prevailing wage is 45 days. I heard that the waiting for prevailing wage could be more than 2 months. DON'T WORRY!!GOOD LUCK!!!!!
 
Happy to hear from you guys!! We (i.e. my husbands company - the GC is for him, same as you johnny I am just a dependent) just started advertising. So we have 2 months to any application.

As for delays along the road ... There were some layoffs in september, so we have to wait these out (there should be no laoffs within 6 months of the labor ...). So no, the GC process doesn't start when the company says "OK" (in our case it was mid July). For us, in addition to the layoffs there is another slowdown. I was working on my OPT when the company ok'd the process. As I had no visa, the lawyers gave us a 6 month timeframe to EAD cards - i.e. after approved I140. I got H1B in late September, so the EAD is now not urgent - and now nobody is in a hurry to do anything - EXCEPT ME!! BUT We are going to get GCs and everything is going to be fine!!

johnny, nazar05, have you prepared the I140 experience letters?
 
unsure said:
Happy to hear from you guys!! We (i.e. my husbands company - the GC is for him, same as you johnny I am just a dependent) just started advertising. So we have 2 months to any application.

As for delays along the road ... There were some layoffs in september, so we have to wait these out (there should be no laoffs within 6 months of the labor ...). So no, the GC process doesn't start when the company says "OK" (in our case it was mid July). For us, in addition to the layoffs there is another slowdown. I was working on my OPT when the company ok'd the process. As I had no visa, the lawyers gave us a 6 month timeframe to EAD cards - i.e. after approved I140. I got H1B in late September, so the EAD is now not urgent - and now nobody is in a hurry to do anything - EXCEPT ME!! BUT We are going to get GCs and everything is going to be fine!!

johnny, nazar05, have you prepared the I140 experience letters?

Hi,

We don't need for M+0 experience letters. What means OPT? What kind of paper are we need to prepare for I140?
 
yea, you are lucky with MS+0. We needed 3 letters stating the experience in each job he had and no progress was made on the ads until we got these letters. You need I94s, and copy of visas and passports for I140. Nothing specific, there was a tread with info somewhere. Need birth certificates (not quite sure, but good to have them) and marriage certificate (translated) for I485.

OPT is Optional Practicum Training and is a 12 month EAD card, given after you complete your degree. All F1's get one. Where else do you think about advertising? I am asking because I try all the time to track what our lawyer is doing. I found just one ad in America's Job bank and was wondering where else can the ads go.
 
unsure said:
yea, you are lucky with MS+0. We needed 3 letters stating the experience in each job he had and no progress was made on the ads until we got these letters. You need I94s, and copy of visas and passports for I140. Nothing specific, there was a tread with info somewhere. Need birth certificates (not quite sure, but good to have them) and marriage certificate (translated) for I485.

OPT is Optional Practicum Training and is a 12 month EAD card, given after you complete your degree. All F1's get one. Where else do you think about advertising? I am asking because I try all the time to track what our lawyer is doing. I found just one ad in America's Job bank and was wondering where else can the ads go.

Where do you live? Us...in New York(westchester)...
 
unsure said:
We live in San Diego.

Unsure,

I need your advice if you can give me.... We put the ADs in NYTimes, DOL and 10-business-day internal posting. Second step is to put ADs in:
• Job fair
• Employer’s web site
• Other job search web site (can be newspaper website)
• On-campus recruiting
• Trade or professional organization
• Private employment firm
• Incentive-based employee referral program
• Campus placement office (only for jobs requiring no experience)
• Local/ethnic newspaper (only if appropriate for job)
• Radio/television

I'm confused because we need to choose 3 of them and I was thinking about newspaper, emplower's web site and another web site. We paid for two Sunday in NYT - 780$, DOL-0...Today I received from my lawyer this:"The ad in the Journal News (Westchester's local newspaper) is $465 for 1 time and $710 for 3 runs. It is too expensive. I am thinking may be we should use another interet job site. I regularly use Tristatejobs.com. $125 for 45 days. We can terminate after 30 days.

We may use another internet site even though the employer is also posting on the employer website. I usually use a local newspaper instead of another internet site as the newspaper tend to generate less response. But in your case with the Journal News as the local newspaper, the cost seems very high."
I tried to find today another local newspaper but nothing. I don't know how many days the ADs should be in newspaper or how many days on the web site. If you know something please fell free to answer.
 
I am sorry johnny, I don't have a clue about how to advertise. Our lawyer does not keep us informed about anything. He told us that we need to be "detached" from the process, as our involvement would invalidate it.... So I don't know what is happening at all and what his intentions are. After much browsing I found 1 (one) advertisement and that is it. I would go with the places that do not generate responses, as you need to disqualify applicants afterwards. Sorry again. Maybe post the question as a new tread, so more people respond?
 
Hi ladies, it's the other way round with us, my wife is a lawyer (currently H4, not practicing in US- like yourselves), so she's quite ok with waiting and filling out forms and more waiting. My company gave the go-ahead in October for GC and we're still stuck at the SWA. Though I know that internal posting and ads are ready (but the lawyer doesn't give out any details, sorry johnny).

My H-1 just entered its 6th year and I can't imagine how we'll pass the I-140 approval in just 1 year to obtain the 3-yr extensions if things go this slowly.

My EB-2 or EB-3 is not settled yet, my qualifications are ok for EB-2, but the job is on the borderline, so I think they'll play it safe, but I don't know for sure yet.

We're in NJ.

Anyway, do keep up the info, it's very useful. Best of luck to everyone.
 
If you do PP for I140, you can do it. They give answer in 15 days with the PP. I tried to talk my husband into PP, but he gave me a list with stuff he rather buy with these $1000 :D. His H1 is in his second year.
 
Yeah you're right but I can't even imagine how we'll get to I-140 stage (PP or not) with this speed. I guess it'll get faster once the PERM is under way. I'm not worrying too much about the pp money, the company will cover it, it's more of a time question for me.

You guys are lucky, good thing to make up your minds faster and get it on track instead of lingering like us and turning down offers and then deciding to go for it once you have a baby! So no worries for you, you have time even to make mistakes, good for you. Take care.
 
I am hoping that the I140 stage is like 3 months away :rolleyes: We spent nearly 7 years on student visas so I would not say that it was fast to make up our minds. We are here since '99. But I have the process now on track and as a priority. Right now I just want to move out of the visas and have something more permanent.
 
Nice...San Diego, NJ and NY. We need to keep in touch this tread!!!!!!!!We came in US octomber 21/2005. I started to study Landscape Design on february 7/2006 at NY Botanical Garden. It's amazing!!!!We are from Europe.....
 
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