This process involves the general advertising of the job opening. The employer must publicly offer to pay the prevailing wage for that position. The qualifications of each person who responds to the advertising must be carefully compared against the minimum requirements for the position. Only when it can be demonstrated that there are no US workers available for the position at the prevailing wage is a labor certification successful. The process is supervised by state employment agencies and the federal Department of Labor.
Most labor certifications are ultimately successful.
Each person who is the beneficiary of an approved immigrant visa petition must be screened for individual eligibility to immigrate. There are classes of approved beneficiaries who may not be permitted to immigrate, such as criminals and prostitutes. There are also less obvious classes of people who may be barred from entry, such as those who have entered the US on certain types of J visas, or those who have committed visa fraud. In contrast, spouses, children and parents of US citizens are the only people who may gain permanent residency through a family relationship without delays ranging from a few to many years. Processing Times Processing times are in flux due to the heavy current volume of submissions of immigrant and nonimmigrant visa petitions.