Adjustment of status from OPT to Green Card

[Hassaan 0]

Hello,

I am from Pakistan and I have an MS degree in Mechanical Engineering. I will start my full time job from Oct in NY. My question is can I apply for adjustment of status from OPT to Green card directly bypassing the H1B process since there is just one shot at H1 as the OPT extension has been removed. If yes, how do I determine which employment based category I fall in (EB1, EB2 or EB3)?

Regards,

Hassaan

[NancyNguyen 1,657]

OPT is part of student visa, there is no way around. Employers' lawyer will take care of your work visa (if they hire you of course.)

[newacct 688]

First of all, you must have a petition that is approved and a visa number is available for the priority date before you can do Adjustment of Status, except if the category is current for your country in which case the petition and Adjustment of Status can be filed concurrently.

In most cases, the petition must be filed by an employer, except in the case of EB1 category or NIW in which you can petition yourself. So generally this is not something that is under your control. The employer has to want to petition you, and many employers do not do this until you've worked there for a certain amoutn of time, etc.; the policy varies with each employer. Plus the employer needs to get a labor certification before even doing the petition.

The petition, filed by the employer or (if you are in one of the categories that can self-petition) by yourself, can be filed while you are in any status (not necessarily H1b), or even when you are not in the US, but in most cases it will require a permanent offer of employment from an employer.