Employees

Employment Based Permanent Residency (EBPR)

OIS works with the University designated attorney to assist departments to sponsor to provide sponsorship of permanent residency based on USF employment for qualitied USF positions.  Cases should not be started until the employee is fully employed at USF and in a non-immigrant visa classification that includes dual intent such as H-1B or O-1. 

The three categories used by USF are listed below with eligibility factors:

EB1B: Outstanding Researcher/Professor

USF Position must be tenured, tenure track or officially tenure equivalent. Ex. Assistant Professor, Associate Professor. This category is based on the previous search for employment and requires the employee to prove that they have made “original contributions to the field’ and that they are recognized by their peers as outstanding. This category does not require the department to pay for legal or filing fees.

EB2: Special Handling for University Teachers

Position must include majority teaching duties. This category can use a previous national search if the offer letter was signed less than 18 months from filing and the advertisement was posted in an online journal accessible to the public for at least 30 days. Otherwise, the process will include a new national employment search that would meet USF and category guidelines. This category requires the department to pay for legal fees for the labor certification process.   The employee may pay other fees.

EB2: Advanced Degree Professionals

Position must have official minimum requirements equivalent to Master’s Degree. Please include job description showing minimum requirements as approved by USF Central HR.  This category requires a local search with specific parameters to demonstrate that no US candidates are available at the minimum requirements. This category requires the department to pay for legal fees for the labor certification process. The employee may pay other fees.

Costs

EBPR cases incur USCIS filings fees and legal fees based on the type of case.  USF departments can review the current fee schedule at the following Box link Employee Sponsorship Fee Schedule. 

Each college has different policies and practices for who pays for an application. For any EB2 filing, the department must pay the costs for the first stage.  After that departments may pay all remaining costs, split the remaining costs, or have the employee pay the remaining costs.

Quick Start instructions

Step 1 – Get Department Access to iStart (if you already have this move to step 2)
Step 2 – The employee should have an USF U# and you can go to Step 3. If they do not, get the employee’s full name, date of birth, gender, and email (not from 125.com, 126.com) to complete the Add New Person eform.
Step 3 – Complete EBPR eforms

Complete Instructions

The Employment Based Permanent Residency (EBPR) process is on online processing initiated by the USF hiring department.  

  1. Determine who the ‘department contact’ will be. The department contact is the person who will be responsible for logging into iStart and going through the online EBVS/PR process. It might be a department administrator or the hiring supervisor.  Remember that the department contact will also work with USF’s Designated Counsel (law firm).
  2. The department contact will log in. We suggest creating a bookmark in your browser for easy access.
  3. If it is the first time the department contact has logged in, they will fill out the Department Access Request Form and then email INTLEmployee@usf.edu  to let us know they have applied.
  4. Once we approve their access, the department contact should log back in and begin the application process.
  5. The employee should already exist in iStart and you should not need to add a new person.
  6. If approved, the department will continue to complete these eforms:
  7. Permanent Residency Request – the department will provide the employee’s full name, the official position name, upload the position description, and answer questions necessary to initiate the case.
  8. Final Approval Signatures – the employee’s supervisor, department head, and Dean/VP, will be required to sign off on the request. All signatories must be USF employees as listed in USF’s HR database and have the ability to sign into the eforms using their USF Net ID. Requests from USF Health are forwarded to the appropriate USF Health Vice President.
  9. Once all parties have signed, the request will be reviewed by OIS.
  10. Once the request is approved, OIS will email the law firm to initiate the case.