Permanent Residency may be obtained in various ways – family sponsorship, political asylum, diversity lottery, or employment-based. Employment-based (EB) permanent residency is divided into the following categories:

• EB 1 for “Extraordinary or Outstanding Workers"
• EB 2 for “Advanced Degreed Workers”
• EB 3 for “Professional and Skilled Workers”

PERM is a labor certification process and is required for EB 2 & EB 3 categories. In essence, these are university-sponsored green cards.

PERM requires “testing the labor market” through good faith recruitment. The employer must prove that there are no U.S. workers able, willing, qualified, and available to accept the job at the prevailing wage for that occupation in the area of intended employment, and that employment of the foreign national will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers. The job description cannot be tailored to the individual.

To initiate the permanent residency process, please submit the initiation form via AdobeSign. Make sure to select the form from Workflows instead of Templates to ensure correct form routing:
AdobeSign > Start from library > Workflows (Account Workflows) > HR - Employer-sponsored Permanent Residency Faculty or HR - Employer-sponsored Permanent Residency Staff

For questions regarding a Rice-sponsored PERM process, please contact Megan Keener at (mk156@rice.edu).