Attaining U.S. Permanent Residence in Korea via EB2-NIW
During my days in previoius company I happened to know about the process to receive U.S. permanent residence. I became a legal U.S. permanent resident in July 2024, and got a job offer from a company the starting date of which I am waiting for. Now I am staying in Cambridge, MA to set up housing for my wife and our coming baby. My jet lag is preventing me from getting to bed so I would like to document my journey to get U.S PR.
EB2-NIW?
I got my US permanent residence by EB2-NIW. EB2 is an acronym for Employment-Based Immigration: Second Preference, and NIW is another one for National Interest Waiver. When we consider EB2 only, there are two ways to attain it.
- By attaining a job offer from an employer and labor certificate
- By being approved to meet the National Interest Waiver (NIW)
EB2-NIW is therefore a path to receive US permanent residence without support from an employer. As the acquisition of permanent residence depends solely on the capacity of the petitioner, and as the ‘capacity of petitioner’ is evaluated based on academic/professional achievements he or she accomplished, EB2-NIW is often called “Indepenedent immigration program for the educated”.
PR of Petitioner’s Family Members
You can file your petition for immigration visa including your family members. I included my wife in my process and my wife was also approved as a legitimate permanent resident.
How and What to do in EB2-NIW Process
In Korea I have seen different approaches to process their EB2-NIW case. Some splendid people were able to do all the required processes for their own, but most others contract with an immigration case specialized attorney in US. In my case, there was even another Korean agent who connected me with my US attorney. Accompanying a company skilled in handling immigration petition filing can help you save your time and energy but requires more budget so you may take a strategy you prefer. In my case it took 10,000 USD but it could have been halved if I had chosen not to contract with Korean agency. I processed my EB2-NIW case during my working in previous company so I took more expensive approach to save my time.
The detailed process for completing EB2-NIW can be divided into several steps.
- (Skippable) Contract with Korean immigration agency
- (Skippable) Contract with NIW-specialized US attorney
- Write and submit I-140, immigration petition for alien workers
- Write and submit DS-260, on-line visa application for outside US petitioners
- Receive a document qualified letter (DQ Letter)
- Receive an interview notice(P4 letter) from US embassy
- Interview with a US consul by visiting US embassy
- Land at US territory to get approved as a legitimate US permanent resident
There are Korean communities like GoToUSA for more detailed perspectives. Here I would like to summarize what was impressive to me.
Contract with Korean Immigration Agency
There are many domestic companies specialized in EB2-NIW case in Korea. I contacted with a company which took my previous colleague’s EB2-NIW case. I contracted with them on January 2022 and my first landing to become a legitimate US permanent resident was on July 2024, so it took two and half years for me to become a legal PR. As it took another half year for me to secure a job offer, it took almost three years for me to buy a one-way ticket to the US finally.
Contract with a US Attorney
If you have already contracted with Korean immigration agency, contracting a US attorney who will handle the details of your case is up to them. What I, as a petitioner, had to do was to provide proper materials they requested to me.
But you can choose to directly contract with a US attorney without Korean agency. It saves you money by cutting down the portion given to the agency. If you do not feel disturbed in communicating with attorneys’ offices in English, you can choose this way. There are many US attorneys’ offices, and it is a standard for such officies to provide free-evaluation of your possibility of being approved if you file an EB2-NIW case. So there is no harm on you to reach out to them first. After evaluation the attorney’s office might reject to file your case due to their insecurity about the superiority of your background, or they might recommend you to file your case with them. Some offices might provide your possibility to get passed with specific number like xx%.
Submitting I-140
The very first step of EB2-NIW process is writing and submitting the I-140 form (Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers).
Recommendation Letters
There are many documents required to fill out I-140 form, and among them it is often said that the recommendation letters are most important for your case to be approved. I was also advised from my Korean agency that they recommend more than two separate recommendation letters from professionals working in the US. The agency even pressed me to seriously consider to prepare a Wish Letter, which I think was not a official one but just a term they used to designate an even more powerful form of recommendation letter than others in that it includes detailed plans from the recommender on how he or she wants to work with the petitioner in near future. I got seven recommendation letters in total, and three of them were from professionals working in the US. One of the three letters from the US residents was a Wish Letter.
Priority Date
Once you finishes your I-140 and submit it to the USCIS, the date your I-140 was received by USCIS becomes your priority date (PD). PD is one of the most important date, combination of which with visa bulletin dictates how long it would take for you to get your permanent residence.
Submitting DS-260
A successful approval of your I-140 leads you to next step of filing DS-260 or on-line visa application. DS-260 is more oriented to general details rather than those of I-140 which asks you to prove how your professional competancy can benefit the US industry. In general sense DS-260 is less dictative in your possibility of finally getting approved as a legitimate PR via EB2-NIW.
Receiving DQ Letter
Petitioner’s DS-260 documentation is reviewed not by USCIS but the National Visa Center (NVC). Successful completion of this review leads to your receipt of Document Qualified(DQ) Letter or so-called P3 letter.
Receiving P4 Letter
I-140 submission and approval, DS-260 submission, and receiving DQ Letter is followed by the petitioner’s enrollment into the queue waiting for an interview at the US embassy of Korea. Finally the torment of time starts and the Visa Bulletin, which dictates how long your waiting would be, reveals its presence.
The Visa Bulletin
The US Department of States (DOS) seeks to control the number of immigrant visa petitioners, considering various factors like total number of immigrant visas available and the backlog of petitioners in queue. In this process, DOS announces a Visa Bulletin, which is basically a collection of specific dates called Final Action Date (FAD), which dictates whether the petitioners would be considered to receive P4 letter in near future. Petitioners can be considered for final interview in the US embassy in their countury only if their PD precedes FAD in visa bulletin which corresponds to their immigrant visa category and nationality.
You can refer to this link to check the visa bulletins announced till now.
Let’s try reading the FAD for EB2 visa from above image. We first need to go to the table for employment-based visas, and further proceed to the row header “2nd” (second preference). As South Korea does not correspond to the counturies where a separate dates are listed, check the column header “All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed.” Reading the crossing cell gives you 15MAR23. If every petitioners can be considered for final interview, letter C comes there. In above case, petitioners with PDs earlier than 15th Mar. 2023 can be considered to receive an interview invitation.
Interview in the US Embassy
This is the last step before a petitioner receive their immigration visa. A petitioner have to visit the US embassy, to meet a consul who would interview them and make decision on their immigrant visa will be issued or not. Oftentimes the consul can issue a Blue Letter rather than directly approve the petitioner’s case, asking further documents to certify their eligibility to recieve a visa.
Visiting a US Territory with Visa-Printed Passport
A petitioner (and all of the familiy members if they were filed) is finally asked to visit the US with their passport with immigrant visa printed. At immigration checkpoint they receive I-551 stamp, an oval print inside which the date of their landing is marked, which functions as a 1-year temporary permanant resident card before they successfully receive their physical green card. From this point the petitioner is recognized as a legitimate US PR.
Closing & My Timeline
There are a lot more details during the whole process to successfully complete EB2-NIW. For example, a petitioner is subject to a health checkup in one of the designated hospitals. After this checkup, they have to visit a US territory within no later than one year. I would like to add more details if my schedule allows.
Now I would like to close this post with my timeline of completing EB2-NIW.
- 20th Jan. 2022: Contract with a Korean immigration agency
- 08th Sep. 2022: I-140 filed (my PD was therefore 09/08/22)
- 10th Jan. 2023: I-140 approved
- 06th Jul. 2023: DS-260 filed
- 26th Jul. 2023: DQ letter received
- Aug. 2023 FAD 01st Apr. 2022 (Not enrolled in the interview queue)
- Sep. 2023 FAD 01st Jul. 2022 (Not enrolled in the interview queue)
(…)
- Jan. 2024 FAD 01st Nov. 2022 (Enrolled in the interview queue)
- Feb. 2024 FAD 15th Nov. 2022 (Waiting in the queue)
- Mar. 2024 FAD 20th Nov. 2022 (Waiting in the queue)
- Apr. 2024 FAD 15th Jan. 2022 (Waiting in the queue)
- 15th Mar. 2023: P4 letter received
- 16th Apr. 2023: Visitied US embassy Korea and completed interview
- 18th Apr. 2023: Immigrant visa issued
- 20th Jul. 2023: Visited US (Guam) to activate PR and became a legitimate US PR