gypsygirl

We are in the process of moving over to NY, hubby on a h1-b, me and the kids on a H4.
The comanys lawyers have been looking into our greencards which is part of the job offer and found a potential problem.
My husbands degree is a university assessed one, not from a university exam. It was assessed in 2004 when we last went over on a H1-b/H4.
The lawyers are saying because it is assessed, we cant apply for the regular faster greencard, but have to go down the Eb (?) route which can take 5+ years. Is this true? Surely a degree is a degree and he has 20 years in the industry.
The main problem we have is our son is 19 and they said as he would be 21 before the GC came through on an Eb, he would have to leave and would not be granted one. I was previously told, it depended on the age of the child when they apply? As long as they applied before, then it would carry on until approved or denyed?
He has aspergers so we cant send him back and I doubt he could do a uni course to give him extra time there. He isnt that bad to be classed as disabled or anything. We certainly couldnt go over there and send him home after 18m, despite his age he would not cope alone so that is out of the question.
We are looking at 10+ years if we have to do a 5 year application and then sponsor him ourselves which also takes 5+ years. He wouldnt survive 8.5 years alone in England.
We either find a way that he can get a greencard, or we cant go.
Thank you for your helpful advice.

gypsygirl

Update; The company told us the Green card would only take a few months and now it turns out its a 6 year wait.

lisa67

There are different types of EB category with EB1 or EB2 being the quickest and EB3 being the slowest.
For what it's worth my OH had a first class degree from a top UK university and a masters and still we got stuck in the EB3 category and it took us 6 years.
Not sure what to tell you other than you could get another attorney to take a look at it for you especially if the attorney you're dealing with is the company attorney as he is working for the company and not you.

zerlesen

Yeah, there are other issues regarding EB3/EB2 classification besides just possession of a suitable degree. To an extent it is subjective, and I remember reading elsewhere that USCIS is currently scrutinizing EB2 petitions quite closely. EB2 usually requires a master's-level qualification, which (I think) can be waived given a suitable amount of industry experience, but I don't know how the bachelor's degree situation affects things.

Definitely worth asking for a second opinion, but the I-140 petition will be handled by the employer and (I think) it's ultimately their decision which category they file it under. (Or am I confused here? There's certainly lots of traffic on various other forums from people trying to upgrade from EB3 to EB2...)

gypsygirl

Thanks for the replies, they were talking about an E3 but now thinking of an E2 but not sure if they would accept an assessed masters as hubby wouldnt have time take one. We read something that said if he has it when he applies for the job then the job has to require it or it might affect his H1-B application. If they could to an Eb2 based on experience he has 20 continuous years in his area. Also somewhere else said you have to do 2 years after an assessed masters, which we also dont have time to do.
We are talking to an immigration lawyer now, but any insight on here is still appreciated, as in my experience things can still be missed ans its very slow waiting for them to check things and get back to us.
We are about to sign for the apartment of our dreams so I really dont want to loose that either, while we sort things out!

msabiransari

EB2 minimum criteria is US equivalent Bachelors+5years of relevant experience. Here Bachelors is 4 years (2+2 or 3+1 or 4 years) after 12 years of school. Total 16 years of education.

Please note that all Bachelor years must be relevant to the job requirement. For example If job requirement is to have Bachelors in Computer Science then you cannot be eligible with 2 yrs Bachelors in Computer Science +2 yrs Masters in Finance or MIS. You have to have all 4 yrs in Computer Science. (Although I have seen people getting GC with different combinations).

Also, working experience must be after completion of Bachelors.

Experience of current employment doesn't count towards GC (Probably this scenario is not yours)

You should pay attention towards lawyers working on your case. There is a possibility of having a lawyer who never dealt with such scenario or have never applied any GC in his life. In that case I would suggest to hire an experienced lawyer. There are very specific questions in the GC documentation which can lead to a straight denial and you can end up with nothing after many years of waiting.