How to know if old I-140 has been revoked by previous employer?

If an individual filing a green card under employment-based category has changed job and now planning to port priority date from previous filed Labor certification, he will at least need an approved I-140 from previous employer to recapture priority dates.

As per Yates Memo, in the context of employment-based immigration, visa petitions filed under the EB-1, EB-2, or EB-3 categories are entitled to the earliest priority date where a subsequent I-140 immigrant visa petition in any of these categories is submitted and approved, unless the prior petition was revoked due to fraud. So, unless case is revoked due to fraud, you should be able to recapture old priority date.

But there are many cases with USCIS, where old priority date is not recaptured on new filings even if previous employer revokes old approved I-140 due to retaliation or due to company's policy to annually revoke cases for former employees. In these circumstances, employee or new employer should call National Service Center and talk to representative and remind them about Yates Memo, which clearly says earliest priority date should be recaptured unless petition was revoked due to fraud or misrepresentation. If you will talk to them nicely and puftorth your case by referencing Yates Memo, you might be able to convince them to recapture old PD. See excerpt from Yates Memo below.

From: William R. Yates

Date: 09/23/05

Re: Interim Guidance Regarding the Impact of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) PERM Rule on Determining Labor Certification Validity, Priority Dates for Employment-Based Form I-140 Petitions, Duplicate Labor Certification Requests and Requests for Extension of H-1B Status Beyond the 6<sup>th Year.

Revisions to Adjudicator’s Field Manual (AFM) Chapters 22.2(b)(2), 22.2(b)(3)(B), 22.2(b)(3)(F), (22.2(b)(5) and 33.3(g)(8) (AFM Update AD 05-15)
.....</sup>

^{In those cases where the alien’s priority date is established by the filing of the labor certification, once the alien’s Form I-140 petition has been approved, the alien beneficiary retains his or her priority date as established by the filing of the labor certification for any future Form I-140 petitions, unless the previously approved Form I-140 petition has been revoked because of fraud or willful misrepresentation. This includes cases where a change of employer has occurred; however, the new employer must obtain a new labor certification if the classification requested requires a labor certification}

How to know if old I-140 has been revoked by previous employer?

There is no easy way to know if previous employer has revoked your old approved I-140. The best way to know this is to call your previous employer or attorney and see if your previously approved I-140 is still good. If that is not an option, other way to predict this is to check if there is any 'Soft LUD' on your previously approved I-140. If there is no update on your case status after final action (i.e. approval notice sent date), then you may be in good shape and your I-140 is still good. Please see '. Other than this there is no better way to know status on previously filed petition.

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