Eligibility for UVM Permanent Residency Sponsorship
Permanent residency (green card) sponsorship is for employees UVM intends to employ indefinitely. UVM will consider tenure-track faculty for permanent residency sponsorship upon hire. UVM will also give sponsorship consideration to non-tenure track faculty who have worked full-time at UVM for a minimum of two years and whose employment, including funding, is expected to last at least three years into the future.
Exceptions to the two-year waiting period for non-tenure track faculty will be considered based on factors such as the following: length of time individual will continue to remain eligible for H-1B, the extent to which permanent residency is essential for the individuals’ continued employment or receipt of funding and the consequences to the department or unit if the individual is not sponsored prior to the end of the two-year waiting period.
Exempt staff may be eligible for sponsorship on a case-by-case basis, with substantial weight given to the availability of funding (in the case of non-General Fund positions) and whether UVM could otherwise recruit qualified candidates in the relevant US labor market. UVM will not consider sponsorship of foreign nationals for employment in part-time, temporary, visiting, post-doctoral or term appointments.
According to UVM policy, only the Provost has the authority to determine whether or not an individual employee will be sponsored by UVM for permanent residency, documented through a sponsorship approval process managed by the Office of International Education. To avoid misunderstandings arising during the hiring process, no persons associated with the recruitment process should make oral or written representations to any candidate who is a foreign national regarding sponsorship for permanent residence without the advance required approvals. The University hires its own immigration counsel to manage these cases, so hiring departments also should not make promises about allowing employees to use specific firms or attorneys. In addition, regardless of institutional sponsorship, under no circumstances should the hiring department make any guarantee of permanent resident status, as the decision as to whether to grant permanent residency is solely within the discretion of immigration authorities.
Timeline
Permanent residency cases usually take at least 1-3 years to be prepared and processed by the government. Depending on country of citizenship and government processing times and waiting lists, the overall process can stretch to 10 years or more. For new tenure-track faculty members, the department should contact OIE within 3 months after the employee's hire to ensure that an application can be submitted within 18 months of the date of the offer letter. The permanent residency process should be started no later than the 4th year of H-1B status, after which ongoing work authorization may be difficult to obtain if certain parts of the permanent residency process have not been completed.
Sponsorship Approval and Application Process
All permanent residency sponsorship must first be approved and documented in the OIE's iStart system. Once this formal approval process is complete, OIE will introduce employees to UVM's external immigration counsel to review eligibility and discuss timelines.
Costs
Sponsoring departments are required to pay the cost of government filing fees for the employer-sponsored petition ($715) and any special circumstances which require additional fees by outside counsel. Optional and recommended expedited processing of the employer-sponsored petition for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is $2,805. Departments also may choose to pay the Adjustment of Status government filing fee, which is considered a personal fee, on behalf of the employee ($1,440), as well as the cost of outside counsel preparing that personal application (~$2,000).