Law office of Popkin, Shamir and Golan, 40 years experience in immigration solutions

8. NOT EMPLOYED BY YOUR SPONSOR
AFTER GREEN CARD?

Employment Based immigration (EB category) requires an offer of employment for the immigrant as a prospective worker. The worker’s obligation to be employed by the sponsoring business - and the sponsor’s obligation to employ the worker - begins when the immigrant worker arrives in the United States with an Immigrant Visa or when the immigrant worker is granted Adjustment of Status in the United States and gets a Green Card.

Once this employment begins, there is no minimum time that the worker must continue this employment in this position with this employer. Legally, it could be a short employment - but how “short” is enough? And what if the employment never begins?

This is a tricky situation. Even after the grant of a Green Card, the immigrant worker must be able to convince the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) that the Green Card or Immigrant Visa was not obtained by misrepresenting the true intention to be employed by the sponsoring business. If misrepresentation is suspected by the CIS they could move against the worker by starting removal proceedings (deportation) in Immigration Court. (To read more about Immigration Court - click here 0). What would trigger the suspicion of CIS that misrepresentation, or lying, was committed by the immigrant worker?

It could happen in many ways, some of which are:

A “poison pen” letter to CIS by somebody who knows what the worker did and did not do;
An investigation against the sponsoring business for some other violations which leads to questions about the sponsored worker;
An investigation against the lawyer or the consultant who assisted in the immigration of the worker;
A new application or petition filed by the sponsored worker for another immigration benefit (mainly - an Application for Naturalization, or American Citizenship), which exposes the lack of the promised employment.

An accusation of misrepresenting the intention to be employed by the sponsoring business puts the immigrant worker in a tricky situation: You and your immigration lawyer must prove what was in your mind in the past (may be years earlier)re when you immigrated.

If it is done properly, you may save your Green Card (and the Green Cards of your family).

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Tel: 1 (213) 383-3222 / Fax: 1 (213) 365-9922 • Email: psg@immigrationguru.com