Legal Permanent Resident

Northwestern University is pleased to sponsor foreign nationals on nonimmigrant visas for Legal Permanent Resident status, also known as green card. Since this is an employment-based petition, all sponsorship questions must be directed to the hiring department and the immediate supervisor.

What are the various categories of LPR?

  • Faculty: The university will sponsor tenured and tenure-eligible faculty for permanent residence in the U.S. at the request of the appropriate department, when it is endorsed by the School Dean.
  • Research Staff and Non-Tenure-Eligible Faculty: The university will sponsor highly qualified research staff and non-tenure-eligible faculty upon the recommendation of his/her department and endorsed by the School Dean and the Provost or the Vice President for Research, respectively. Such a recommendation should be predicated on the following evidence:
    • The individual should have been employed at Northwestern for at least two years, preferably in the same position.
    • There is a high likelihood of continued funding for the position for at least three additional years.
  • Non-Research Staff: Positions that are not within the domain of the Vice President for Research may be considered, if the position is deemed to be critical to the functioning of the unit and the individual has been employed at Northwestern for at least two years. Such requests must be submitted to the School Dean or the Vice President in which the employee’s office is situated.

What are the various categories of sponsorship?

  • Outstanding Professor or Researcher
  • Standard Labor certification or PERM for all non-tenure eligible faculty, researchers, research faculty and staff
  • Special Handling Labor Certification or PERM for tenure-eligible faculty

Labor certification under the special handling for tenure-eligible faculty must be filed within 18 months of the date of offer. Once the window closes, or if there were no print advertisements placed by the department at the time of the original hire, then the department must follow the requirements for the Standard Labor Certification. Standard Labor Certification will lengthen the processing time of an LPR application.

Post-Doctoral Fellows

The university will not sponsor post-doctoral employees for permanent residence.