Changing Employers During the Green Card Process

AC21 PERMANENT PORTABILITY:

• In 2000, Congress enacted the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000 (AC21).

• Section 106 of AC21 added a new “portability provision” available to workers seeking permanent employment in the U.S.

• Section 106 permits employment-based adjustment of status applicants (from any nonimmigrant status) whose I-485s have been pending for 180 days or more to change jobs or employers without invalidating the underlying I-140 or labor certification, as long as the new job is in the same or a similar occupational classification as the one for which the petition was filed.