NPZ Law Group, P.C.

It is no secret that obtaining Lawful Permanent Residence status, or a “green card,” in the US is not simple. To the contrary, it is a complicated, lengthy and expensive process fraught with traps for the unwary. Fortunately, however, US immigration law makes the process a little easier for scientists.

Many US employers have an interest in hiring recent college and professional school graduates who are foreign nationals. This is true in every field, but is particularly so in the sciences. All the same, employers often shy away from hiring foreign nationals because they are intimidated by many of the complex US immigration laws.

A foreign national may apply for lawful permanent residence status (green card), and seek a waiver of the job offer and labor certification requirements, by establishing that his or her admission to permanent residence would be in the National Interest.

For some time now, lawmakers have insisted that immigration reform, if it is to happen, must be comprehensive, dealing with all of the problems with our broken system at once. A piecemeal approach, they say, is not acceptable. Suggestions that certain pressing issues be dealt with separately have been flatly rejected.

For the past few months, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Services ("CIS") has conducted an investigation program aimed at visiting H-1B petitioner work sites throughout the U.S.