Form I-140
Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker is a form submitted to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services by a prospective employer to petition an alien to work in the U.S. on a permanent basis. This is done in the case when the worker is deemed extraordinary in some sense or when qualified workers do not exist in the U.S. The employer who files is called the petitioner, and the alien employee is called the beneficiary; these two can coincide in the case of a self-petitioner. The form is 6 pages long with a separate 10-page instructions document as of 2016. It is one of the USCIS immigration forms.
Reasons for filing Form I-140
Form I-140 is required for EB categories EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3. For EB-4 and EB-5, Forms I-360 and I-526 are used, respectively. These categories were introduced as part of the Immigration Act of 1990.The following is a list of all of the reasons for filing Form I-140.
| Petition type | Visa | Labor certification-based? |
| An alien of extraordinary ability | EB-1 | No |
| An outstanding professor or researcher | EB-1 | No |
| A multinational executive or manager | EB-1 | No |
| A member of the professions holding an advanced degree or bachelor's degree with minimum of 5 years work experience post-bachelor's degree or an alien of exceptional ability | EB-2 | Yes |
| A professional | EB-3 | Yes |
| A skilled worker | EB-3 | Yes |
| Any other worker | EB-3 | Yes |
| An alien applying for a National Interest Waiver | EB-2 | No |
Filing details
Initial evidence
The Form I-140 petition must be accompanied by what is termed "initial evidence". This evidence depends on the type of employee being sponsored, but for instance includes an award given to the employee or publication by the employee that certifies they are someone of extraordinary ability. In many cases, part of the initial evidence is a Permanent Labor Certification, which establishes, among other things, that there are insufficient workers in the US to fill the position the alien employee plans to take. In cases where a labor certification is required, the petition is said to be labor certification-based.In labor certification-based petitions, a Permanent Labor Certification must be filed and approved by the US Department of Labor before Form I-140 can be submitted. It is possible to establish a successor-in-interest relationship between the successor employer and predecessor employer, in which case a predecessor's labor certification can be used.
General evidence
Additional evidence that must be provided includes the employer's financial data, proof of the employee's education and work experience, as well as evidence that the employer can pay the proffered wage to the employee.The alien can in addition self-petition in the cases of EB1-A Alien of Extraordinary Ability or EB-2 National Interest Waiver.
The form must be signed to be valid.
Forms submitted alongside
Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service, is required if the petitioner is requesting Premium Processing.Form I-140 may be filed concurrently with Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status.
Filing modalities
Form I-140 can be filed by paper or electronically. If the form is filed electronically, it will be sent to an appropriate service center.Addresses
The filing address for Form I-140 depends on whether Form I-140 is being filed on its own or concurrently with Form I-485. The filing address can also differ by the state the beneficiary will work in for Premium Processing.Filing fees
The fee for filing Form I-140 is $715, and must be payable in US currency to the US Department of Homeland Security. There is also a $2,800 fee for Premium Processing.However, this fee does not include:
- In the case the beneficiary is already in the United States, the fee for Form I-485, which can range from $750 to $1140 depending on the category, plus an $85 biometrics fee.
- In the case the beneficiary is not in the United States, the immigrant visa application processing fee that, as of May 2015, is $325.
- In the case the beneficiary is not in the United States, the $220 USCIS immigrant fee, which is needed to process the immigrant visa packet and produce and send to the applicant the Green Card.
Premium Processing: Form I-907
The Premium Processing Service was introduced in 2001 for Form I-129 and extended to Form I-140 in 2006.
Premium Processing does not guarantee a final adjudication; it only provides a time limit for initial review of the petition. In other words, the 15 calendar day guarantee is only for the initial review of the petition, which may result in approval, denial, or the issuing of a Request For Evidence or Notice of Intent to Deny.
For immigrant visa allocation, the Form I-140 petition must be approved and the priority date assigned to that petition must be before the cutoff date. Since the cutoff date and the processing time for Form I-140 petitions are independent, the wait time for Form I-140 to be processed is the later of the visa number availability time and the Form I-140 processing time. Therefore, Premium Processing can expedite the overall process of obtaining lawful permanent resident status when the Form I-140 processing time is longer than the visa number availability time. In other words, if there is no visa number availability wait time, either because the category is uncapped or the caps are nowhere near being met, then Premium Processing is advantageous. On the other hand, for a visa category with a country of chargeability where the current cutoff date is far in the past, Premium Processing would not expedite the overall process because the cutoff date overwhelms even the standard processing time.
It is possible to apply for Premium Processing on an already-submitted application. In this case, the clock for Premium Processing begins when the Premium Processing is requested.
Benefits of having an approved Form I-140 petition
Q 67 andSection 106 of the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act includes special provisions in case of lengthy adjudications. In particular, it allows extensions by one year at a time of the H-1B status for people with long-pending Form I-140 petitions. Here, "pending" includes an appeal that is pending. It also allows people with Form I-485 petitions that have been pending for more than 180 days to switch jobs without invalidating the underlying Form I-140 and labor certification. However, there is an ambiguity in cases where an extension is obtained but subsequently the Form I-140 petition is denied.
Under one of the provisions of the LIFE Act, the USCIS would overlook unlawful entry and unlawful presence when considering some Adjustment of Status applications for people whose Form I-140 had been filed by April 30, 2001.
Statistics
Rate of approvals
The approval rate for aliens of extraordinary ability has ranged from 47% to 62% during the years 2005–2010. For outstanding professors or researchers, this has ranged from 90% to 95% during the same years.Processing times
USCIS processes Form I-140 on a first-come, first-served basis, so at any given time, the date received for the forms that have just finished processing provides a good estimate of processing time. USCIS breaks down Form I-140 into eight categories and reports processing times separately for each:- Extraordinary Ability
- Outstanding Professor or Researcher
- Multinational Manager or Executive
- Advanced Degree Professional
- Skilled or Professional Worker
- Unskilled Worker
- Advanced degree or exceptional ability requesting a National Interest Waiver
- Schedule A Nurses
There are separate processing times reported for the appeals processing. As of February 1, 2016, the processing times for administrative appeals for all categories of Form I-140 is 6 months or less.
Adverse decisions
Initial response
The initial response from the USCIS to a Form I-140 is one of these four:- Approval
- Denial
- Request for Evidence : Generally, evidence is requested about the relationship between the petitioner and beneficiary. For instance, for marriage-based petitions evidence that the marriage actually occurred, and that there was no marriage fraud, is sought.
- Notice of Intent to Deny : This is an advance notice that the petition is likely to be denied, along with reasons for the proposed denial. The petitioner is given a limited amount of time to respond.
Standalone filing: revocation of petition and Notice of Intent to Revoke
Based on new evidence suggesting that the original petition was fraudulent, the USCIS may issue a revocation of petition or send the petitioner a Notice of Intent to Revoke, to which the petitioner may respond with additional evidence or challenge the reasons. The typical impetus for the USCIS to reconsider an approved petition is when a United States consular officer evaluating the beneficiary's visa application based on the petition encounters evidence suggesting that the petition was fraudulent. If the consular office finds such evidence, he or she returns the petition to USCIS along with the reasons the petition appears fraudulent, and issues a Section 221 quasi-refusal to the applicant. The following are worth noting:- A consular officer may reject the beneficiary's visa application without returning the petition to the USCIS. This is because the consular officer has many potential grounds for rejecting the application without calling the legitimacy of the petition in question.
- After the consular officer returns the petition to the USCIS, the USCIS may decide that the petition is valid and tell the consular officer that. if the USCIS revalidates the petition, then the consular officer must use this information and proceed with the same visa application.