EMPLOYMENT BASED GREEN CARD – EMPLOYER PAYS

Clients often ask me why they can’t pay the attorney’s fees when their employer sponsors them for a green card. They sometimes find it hard to understand that it is strictly prohibited by law for the employee to pay for what is commonly known as the PERM process. PERM is the process for obtaining labor certification, the first step of the green card process for foreign nationals seeking permanent residence through their employment.
To obtain an approved PERM Labor Certification, the employer must prove (through newspaper advertising and other recruiting methods) that they were unsuccessful in recruiting a qualified U.S. worker for a certain position.
The law prohibits the employee from paying for their own PERM or Labor Certification in part because the idea behind the case is that a legitimate job offer exists that theoretically could be filled by any US worker. If the employee is paying there no longer seems to be a real job opening for other qualified US workers.