hi @mayowa Paul it depends on the country of your birth (not citizenship, but birth). So first, which country were you born in?

Nigeria

@DesiGirl2010 Awaits

OK so for Nigeria, your position in queue is “ROW” - rest of the world. What you want to do is look at the latest USCIS bulletin for 2025 and look at what is being currently processed. Once your employment based application is filed and you have an approved I 140, you will have a priority date. things you need to think about and ask your employer or tell your employer - are they putting you (your qualifications, work experience, position title will determine this) in category EB1 or EB2 or EB3. hopefully you don’t have to file for PERM (DOL) to test the market for your position because that process itself takes about 6 to 9 months and for application approval it could take another 13 months. Are you a national interest waiver or EB1 candidate? Then you don’t have to do a PERM. And can straight away go to filing your I140.

In case of EB2 or EB3 which are perm based, you are looking at 2-3 years from start to finish. If doing EB2 NIW or EB1, then it’s faster

you should expect about 3 to 4 years (hopefully, I am not exaggerating). The steps may include PERM (recruitment process to test the market), which might take 1.5 to 2 years. that is about 4 months advertising your position and 12 months filing for PERM. I-140, which could be expedited via premium processing I-485 (7 to 12 months). hopefully, there is no retrogression. you can try the NIW route, which saves you the headache of thinking about your employer laying you off and also the NIW skips the PERM stage.

@sly pee is there a way to speed things up

@DesiGirl2010, thank you for your detailed insight. From what I understand regarding the EB 2NIW, I have a master’s degree in information systems. I’ll discuss this with my manager. what are the wys to avoid the perm?

@ The Paul you’re welcome. Your lawyer will see your entire profile (education, work experience, publications, citations, awards, etc. and then determine whether you are eligible for NIW). Managers are not very well versed with this, but the lawyers are supposed to be better off. If you cannot avoid PERM, I suggest starting the PWD process asap. That itself will take 6-9mos. PWD = prevailing wage determination

@DesiGirl201 thank you so much not all heroes wear capes