Your Green Card Strategy Doesn’t Have to Be One or the Other

Two or three years!? That's too long."

As an immigration attorney, I hear it almost every time I bring up getting a green card through an employer.

And often it's coming from someone who believes they qualify for extraordinary ability or a national interest waiver.

They have a strong profile. They think they shouldn't have to sit through a labor certification (the PERM process, where an employer sponsors you for a green card). So the moment I mention it, they stop me. "It takes years. I don't want to start something that takes years."

Here's what I tell them: you can try both processes at the same time.

EB-1A and national interest waiver cases are much more subjective. A strong case can still come back the wrong way. Labor certification is slower, but done right, it's one of the more reliable paths I work with.

So if you wait 8 months for an extraordinary ability decision and it doesn't go your way, you're not starting from zero. You're starting a year late.

And a lot of people in this position already have an employer. Some EB-1A and NIW cases are even filed by an employer, even though they don't have to be. If there's a company involved, the smartest move is usually to start both cases at once so you have a backup.

You don't have to wait for the right moment to bring it up. If you're already having a conversation with your employer about your options, labor certification is worth putting on the table.

Now, there is real nuance in labor certification, and plenty of places it can go wrong:

> Getting a prevailing wage determination from the Department of Labor

> Advertising for the position

> Filing the PERM application with the Department of Labor

That's the part you need an attorney for.

These cases take a long time. But as long as it's done correctly and every rule is followed, they usually get approved. I've had a couple come through recently that we started back in 2024.

So when someone tells me the process is too long to bother starting, I get it, but I push back.

The only thing worse than a two-year process is a two-year process you started a year late.

If you have an employer who might sponsor you, even if you're planning to file an extraordinary ability or national interest waiver case, it's worth asking them about labor certification before you talk yourself out of it.