Appling i 140 and i 485 together with EB3

[crawler]

Hello,

I applied Green Card with EB3 category, and my lawyer is preparing to file I 140 right now.
I asked him to apply i 485 and EAD also, so my wife (H4 visa) can work once we receive it, but lawyer says he cannot apply to EAD unless my I 140 is approved, and my priority date is current (which is 2011).

But in this article it says;

/i-140-immigrant-petition-for-alien-worker/

EAD can be applied with i 140 together. Should I ask my lawyer why he can not apply EAD with i 140?

Thanks.

[mickey_mouse]

Your lawyer is right. And the page you quote says:

"I-485 (also EAD and Advance Parole) can be applied for at the same time as applying for I-140, provided the priority date is current. You can periodically check the visa bulletin to check the priority dates. "

You're missing the part of "provided the PD is current". Your PD is 2011, and we don't know what your country of origin is - but even in the best case scenario (not from India or China), the current PD for "rest of the world", EB3, is end of 2005.

If you're lucky, you may be able to apply for AOS (I485), together w/ EAD and AP in, say, four years. If unlucky, in six.

[immihelp]

If your priority date is in 2011, and you are in EB3, there is no way it is current.

Therefore, there is no way for you to apply your wife's EAD.

[crawler]

it is not current,
lawyer said he cannot apply for EAD unless PD is current which is 2011 for me.

So I have to wait for 6-10 years to get EAD?

[mickey_mouse]

Nobody can tell you how long you'll have to wait. There's a fixed number of immigrant visas available per year, divided in different categories. Unused numbers on a category can "flow down" to the next one - even then, EB3 is highly oversubscribed, and has been so for a long time.

Taking India as an example - the PD for October/2011 is 15JUL02 - which means that there's been people waiting in line almost 10 years to get an immigrant visa number.

When your PD becomes current, then you will be able to apply for AOS/CP (I485), EAD & AP. In the meantime, you'll have to keep your status - ie, keep extending your H1B.

This is all assuming your I140 actually gets approved, which may not be the case.