Green Card - Employment Verification Process
 

I am on an L1 visa and I have been in the US since March of this year.

I am now going through the GC process and the immigration attorney appointed by my employer is guiding me through the process. A key requirement from me that is being asked is to provide reference letters from each employer (going back to 2000 - as this is what I have provided in my CV) on letterheaded paper detailing:

- My employment start and end dates
- My title
- My responsibilities
- Skills gleaned from this role that show suitability in the current role I am in

There are some key challenges with obtaining this information, namely, some of those employers do not exist anymore, people I worked with at most of these companies have moved on.

When I have gone back to the attorney, he has advised that I must provide primary evidence from the employer and then secondary evidence from individuals to support. After then contacting some of the existing companies, they have said that since I left a while ago, they do not retain HR records going back more than 7 years.

I have contacted the Retrieval Records Service (via HMRC), who can send me a record of National Insurance Contributions made every tax year but nothing like start and end dates of employment. Unfortunately whilst the move took place, my P60 documentation has been misplaced.

Has anyone been through this process and know the best way to progress?

Re: Green Card - Employment Verification Process
 

What category is your employer going for, can't really answer your question otherwise. I.e. EB-1, EB-2, or EB-3.

It's not absolutely necessary to have all of that information for any category, but you need to substantiate various things, so if you have a gap in your records it's not fatal to the application.

Have a look at: Employment-Based Immigration: First Preference EB-1 | USCIS

And go through the list of categories on the left, this will tell you what in fact the lawyer is looking for.

Re: Green Card - Employment Verification Process
 

The attorney has been very prescriptive about what he needs from me and that is understood.

The category is EB-3...but for either category, they require independent verification of my employment and in half of the cases I cannot do that for reasons listed above. So I'm really asking how people have approached this as I'm sure others will have experienced this previously.

Re: Green Card - Employment Verification Process
 

Describe it all, and document what you can. Provide explanations for what is missing. Nobody expects a perfect record going back a decade or more. .... Someone who has been the victim of a robbery or had a catastrophic house fire isn't going to be denied a green card as a result of documentation being "thin", or completely missing, from years ago, and you aren't either - you can only provide what you have/ have access to.

Re: Green Card - Employment Verification Process
 

What the lawyer wants is academic, it's what USCIS wants that matters: Employment-Based Immigration: Third Preference EB-3 | USCIS

Says proof of employment or training for two years; or proof a BA degree.

If it was EB-1, yeah you might have a problem, but the documentation required for EB-3 isn't that big of a deal.

The employer has to do the full labour certification as well: http://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/pdf/9089form.pdf

I mean yes it helps if you've got tons of info but as long as you've got the minimum necessary that's all that matters.

Re: Green Card - Employment Verification Process
 

Your attorney is a muppet. Chances are that the admin guy/gal sorting your paperwork is a rookie and just going with the guidelines stated in their internal manual. Don't loose your sleep over the past "employment verification letters", and like others have said, just provide what you can.

I have recently completed the GC process on EB-1, and got the Green card as well; the process was fairly straightforward for me, as well, pretty quick.

The law firm used by my employer is quite a big firm in the US. They also asked me to provide the reference letters from previous employers but I informed them that folks have moved on and I can only provide the employment verification from the last company and not all my previous employers - I couldn't be bothered tbh as I was fairly busy at work. To tick the box, I contacted the HR department of my last employer and asked them to send me the employment verification letter over the email. I got the letter within few days - it was a basic letter, confirming my employment period with them and the designation. I provided that to the law firm and that's it no further questions asked.

Like I said, don't get too anxious about this piece. I don't think you need to even contact HMRC and get the P60 and/or go through your archive looking for the P45s. If you can, just get a simple reference/employment verification letter from the last employer, and give this to the attorney. Loads of colleagues at work have done the same when applying the GC under EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3; so far I have not heard from them that the USCIS has given them any headache because they were "thin" on the reference letters.

Hope this helps.

Re: Green Card - Employment Verification Process
 

A good immigration attorney on employment based cases is careful at the labor certificate stage to require as experience only the experience which can be documented. What good is an approved labor certificate if the subsequent I-140 gets denied for lack of proof?

So, lets say that non-citizen has 10 years of experience but can only document four of those years. Then it might be a good idea if the employer only requires four years on the labor certificate.

Back in early 1990, the office where I was employed had a case where the job was one which could require up to two years of experience. Non-citizen had six years of experience but could only document 18 months. Of course, the law was amended in November 1990 changing the classifications and under two years became important. Client mightily PO'd -- with good reason. At least the other attorney they went to to said "I would have done the same thing."

[p.s. I am annoyed when some of the posters here chose to criticize the attorney when there might very well be a damn good reason for what she does. The criticism may very well be justified, but the posts here are often not detailed enough to see if it is or not.]