 |
 |
|
|
 |
Case: Employer’s “Ability to Pay” and Revitalizing an I-140 Petition Mr. Lee obtained his master’s degree in computer science from a U.S. university. He works in a start-up software company in Silicon Valley. Mr. Lee’s company attorney filed a labor certification (LC)-based EB-2 I-140 petition for him. Unfortunately, the Texas Service Center (TSC) denied Mr. Lee’s EB-2 petition because the company did not prove its “ability to pay.” All employment-based immigration petitions require that the employer be capable of paying the offered salary at the time of filing the labor certification and maintain this capability throughout the immigration petition process—until the alien receives his or her green card. The employer is considered able to pay if it can demonstrate:
Mr. Lee’s company attorney filed his EB-2 I-140 petition in March 2006. A month later, Mr. Lee received a notice from the TSC requesting additional evidence. Because the employer paid Mr. Lee less than the offered salary on the LC, the TSC required more evidence to prove that the employer was able to pay it. Within one month, the company attorney replied to the TSC’s request, submitting the company’s profit documents. Unfortunately, the TSC still denied Mr. Lee’s petition. His company could not meet the first ability-to-pay criterion because his actual salary was less than the offered salary. The company could not meet the second criterion because its net income in 2005 was less than the offered salary. Mr. Lee’s company attorney submitted a motion to reopen Mr. Lee’s case. However, Mr. Lee wanted a second opinion about what to do next. On April 18, 2007, Mr. Lee emailed Attorney Zhang asking if his I-140 case could still be revitalized. Attorney Zhang carefully reviewed the employer’s financial statements reflecting its assets and liability in the past three years. He concluded that he could demonstrate the company’s ability to pay. In May, 2007, Mr. Lee retained our firm to handle his case. His employer supported his decision and sent us all the necessary financial and legal documents. Attorney Zhang carefully reviewed the company’s tax return forms for the past three years and found that the net current assets for all three years were greater than the offered salary. Therefore, Attorney Zhang suggested that Mr. Lee use the employer’s net current assets to support the petition under the third ability-to-pay criterion. Our firm sent Mr. Lee’s petition to the TSC via FedEx on the evening of May 17. The TSC received the petition at 9:30 the next morning. A day later, on May 19, Attorney Zhang received email notification of the approval of Mr. Lee’s petition. Attorney Zhang quickly informed Mr. Lee of this good news. However, another week passed, and our firm did not receive the official approval notice in the mail. Attorney Zhang’s assistant Linda requested an official approval notice USCIS. We were surprised to hear that the case was still under consideration and had not been approved. The email notification was sent because of an error in the system. Mr. Lee and his employer were frustrated to hear this. Over the next two weeks, through e-mail and phone calls, Attorney Zhang and Linda remained in contact with the USCIS officer in charge of Mr. Lee’s case. They were notified that USCIS would process the case soon. On June 14, the immigration officer emailed Attorney Zhang informing him that the case had been approved. But Mr. Lee was still doubtful about this approval because online, the case status was still shown as “pending.” Attorney Zhang reassured Mr. Lee that this was a real approval, since it came from the USCIS officer instead of the computer system. Finally, on June 20, our firm received the original copy of the approval notice in the mail. Mr. Lee was very excited about this result and wrote the following in an email message:
After Dr. Lee’s case was approved, Dr. Lee’s employer transferred all of its immigration cases to Zhang & Associates. On June 21, we filed Mr. Lee’s I-485 based on his approved I-140. He had his fingerprint for his I-485 on September 8, and he is currently awaiting the decision on the I-485. --------------- At Zhang & Associates, P.C., our attorneys and supporting professionals are committed to providing high quality immigration and non-immigration visa services. We specialize in NIW, EB-1, PERM and I-485 cases. In the past eleven years, we have successfully helped thousands of clients get green cards. If you plan to apply for a green card, please send your CV to Attorney Jerry Zhang (info@hooyou.com) for a free evaluation. Houston: 7324 Southwest Freeway, Suite 1088, Houston, TX 77074 In the moment of dynamics, our clients can always count on us. (10/19/2007) For more immigration news, please click here |
|
"The best way to |
| New York | Houston | Chicago | Austin | Los Angeles | |||
