Verified against official sources — 7 November 2026
Form I-140: The Immigrant Petition, In Depth
NEW Published 7 November 2026
What the petition proves, how the priority date is set and kept, premium processing, the 180-day withdrawal rule, and what an approval unlocks for H-1B extensions and H-4 spouses.
Form I-140 is filed by the employer (the petitioner) to classify the worker (the beneficiary) under EB-1, EB-2 or EB-3; EB-1A and EB-2 national interest waiver cases may self-petition. For PERM-based cases the priority date is the date the labour certification was filed with the Department of Labor — and once the petition is approved, that date is yours to keep for any later EB-1, EB-2 or EB-3 petition, unless USCIS revokes for fraud or willful misrepresentation, the Labor Department revokes the certification, or the approval rested on material error. If the employer withdraws an I-140 that has been approved for at least 180 days (or with an I-485 pending at least 180 days), USCIS will not revoke it and you keep the priority date. Approval is not a green card — but it unlocks H-1B extensions beyond the six-year limit in up-to-three-year increments while a visa number is unavailable, and it makes an H-4 spouse eligible to apply for an EAD. No filing-fee or premium-processing-fee figure is printed in this guide: both sit on USCIS's Fee Schedule page and must be read there on the day of filing.
SECTION 01What the Petition Must Prove
RULE — One classification, claimed and proven. USCIS describes Form I-140 as the way to "ask USCIS to classify an alien as someone who is eligible for an immigrant visa based on employment": the employer generally files for the worker, and some categories allow the worker to self-petition — in practice, EB-1A extraordinary ability and the EB-2 national interest waiver. Exactly one preference category is claimed per petition; USCIS's filing procedures reject a petition that leaves the category blank or selects more than one.
RULE — A bona fide job offer stands behind most petitions. USCIS's Policy Manual: "In most cases, the beneficiary of a petition must have a bona fide job offer from a petitioner in the United States," and for most EB-2 and EB-3 petitions the evidence of that offer is an approved permanent labour certification from the Department of Labor. The exceptions are bounded: EB-1 classifications and EB-2 national interest waiver cases do not require an individual labour certification, and Schedule A occupations use a blanket certification route instead. The PERM process itself — recruitment, prevailing wage, the ETA Form 9089 — is its own subject and is covered in the pipeline overview in our employment-based green card guide.
RULE — The labour certification expires; the petition must beat it. USCIS's Form I-140 page: "all labor certifications expire 180 days from the date of certification. We must receive any Form I-140 based on an approved labor certification before the 180-day validity period has elapsed," and a petition that arrives with an expired certification is rejected. The certification's signed Final Determination must be submitted within that 180-day validity period shown on the document.
RULE — Approval is a classification, not a status. USCIS's own instruction note is worth internalising before Section 07: petition approval "is the first step towards permanent residence" but "does not in itself grant permanent residence or employment authorization." Everything the approval unlocks, it unlocks indirectly — through the priority date it fixes and the provisions that key off an approved petition.
SECTION 02Filing, Fees, and Premium Processing
RULE — The fees are final, and their figures are deliberately not printed here. USCIS states that I-140 filing fees are final and non-refundable, and directs filers to its Fee Schedule page (Form G-1055) for the amount. That schedule's table could not be read reliably in this check, so — as with every fee in this guide — the amount is stated by mechanism only: the petitioner reads the current Form I-140 fee on the Fee Schedule page at filing. Where Form I-907 is filed with the petition, USCIS requires each filing fee to be paid separately.
RULE — Premium processing exists for Form I-140. USCIS's Form I-907 page lists Form I-140 among the filings eligible for premium processing. The request can accompany the petition or be filed later to upgrade a petition that is already pending, and only one Form I-907 should be submitted per eligible form. Premium processing buys an adjudicative action, not an outcome: the petition is judged by the same standards, faster.
PARTIALLY VERIFIED — The action windows. USCIS's premium processing framework measures the guarantee in business days and sets different windows by classification. In the material reviewed for this guide, the window for most I-140 classifications (EB-1A, EB-1B, EB-2 other than national interest waiver, and EB-3) is 15 business days, while EB-1C multinational managers/executives and EB-2 national interest waiver petitions carry a 45-business-day window; an action within the window may be an approval, a denial, a Request for Evidence or a Notice of Intent to Deny, and if USCIS issues a Request for Evidence the clock restarts when the response is received. USCIS's own explainer page setting out these windows could not be read first-hand in this check, so confirm the window for your classification on uscis.gov before relying on it — and note the I-907 fee itself is published on the same Fee Schedule page and is likewise not printed here.
RULE — Concurrent filing is a packaging question, not a separate petition. Where an immigrant visa is available for the petition's priority date and the beneficiary is otherwise eligible, the Policy Manual confirms the beneficiary may file Form I-485 concurrently with the petition. Whether your date is available is a Visa Bulletin question — our guide to reading the Visa Bulletin covers the charts; our employment-based green card guide covers the I-485 stage.
SECTION 03The Priority Date: Set by the PERM Filing, Not the Petition
RULE — For PERM-based petitions, the priority date is the labour certification filing date. The regulation at 8 CFR 204.5(d) sets the priority date of a petition accompanied by an individual labour certification as "the date the labor certification application was accepted for processing by any office of the Department of Labor." The Policy Manual applies the same rule to the modern process: for ETA Form 9089 applications filed with DOL on or after 28 March 2005, the priority date "is the earliest date the application for permanent labor certification is filed with DOL." The I-140's own filing and approval dates do not enter into it — the place in the queue was taken the day the PERM was filed.
RULE — Petitions without a labour certification take their own filing date. For a petition supported by a Schedule A designation, or approved in a classification that does not require a labour certification (EB-1, national interest waiver), the Policy Manual sets the priority date as the date the petition is filed with USCIS.
RULE — A denied petition can establish nothing. If a Schedule A or no-labour-certification petition is denied, no priority date is established at all. And a labour certification on which no petition was ever filed establishes no portable date if the petitioner changes (successor-in-interest cases aside). The priority date hardens into an asset only through an approval — which is what the next section is about.
SECTION 04Keeping the Date: Priority-Date Retention After Approval
RULE — An approved petition's date follows you to any later EB-1, EB-2 or EB-3 petition. The regulation at 8 CFR 204.5(e)(1) provides that an approved employment-based petition "accords the alien the priority date of the approved petition for any subsequently filed petition for any classification under section 203(b)(1), (2), or (3)" — the EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3 classifications. Where a beneficiary holds multiple approved petitions, "the alien shall be entitled to the earliest priority date." The Policy Manual confirms the retention in the PERM setting: once the petition is approved, the beneficiary retains the date established by the labour certification filing for any future petitions.
RULE — Retention survives a change of employer. Retention "includes cases where a change of petitioner has occurred" — a new employer can file a new petition and you keep the old date. The new petitioner must still obtain its own new permanent labour certification where the classification requires one: retention carries the date, not the old employer's PERM or petition.
RULE — The four ways retention is lost. Under 8 CFR 204.5(e)(2), retention is not available where USCIS revokes the approval because of (i) fraud or a willful misrepresentation of a material fact, (ii) revocation by the Department of Labor of the approved labour certification, (iii) invalidation of the labour certification by USCIS or the Department of State, or (iv) a USCIS determination that the approval was based on a material error. The Policy Manual's summary names the same core grounds. Ordinary business events — changing jobs, an employer withdrawing support, a company restructuring — are not on this list, which is why the withdrawal rules in Section 05 matter so much.
RULE — The date is personal and non-transferable. A priority date attaches to the beneficiary alone; the regulation provides it is not transferable to another alien. A spouse cannot borrow it, and a new employer cannot buy it — the new employer can only file a petition that inherits it.
SECTION 05Withdrawal, Revocation, and the 180-Day Rule
RULE — The employer can withdraw at any time — but late withdrawal loses its teeth. USCIS's employment-based adjustment guidance answers the question directly: "The petitioner may request to withdraw a Form I-140 at any time. However, if the petitioner requests to withdraw a Form I-140 that has already been approved for at least 180 days, or if an associated Form I-485 has been pending for at least 180 days, USCIS will not revoke the approved Form I-140 and the beneficiary will retain the priority date from the Form I-140." Past the 180-day mark, withdrawal becomes close to a formality as far as your date and the approval itself are concerned.
RULE — What a surviving approval does and does not do after withdrawal. USCIS continues the answer: if your Form I-485 has been pending for at least 180 days, you may be eligible for job portability under INA 204(j) on the strength of the surviving approval (Section 06). If you have not filed Form I-485, or it has not been pending 180 days, "while you retain the priority date from the approved petition you would need a different Form I-140 petition filed and approved on your behalf in order to adjust status" — the date survives; the vehicle must be replaced.
PARTIALLY VERIFIED — Withdrawal before the 180 days, and business closure. The mirror image of the rule above — an approval withdrawn early, or a petitioning business that terminates, is exposed to automatic revocation under 8 CFR 205.1, which governs when approvals are revoked automatically (including on the petitioner's withdrawal or the termination of the petitioner's business), subject to the same 180-day protections. The regulation's structure was confirmed for this guide through USCIS's statement of the 180-day rule itself and the retention exceptions in 8 CFR 204.5(e)(2), rather than read line-by-line in this pass — the practical takeaway does not depend on the paragraph numbering: the first 180 days after approval are the window in which your former employer's actions can still hurt you, and keeping evidence of the approval notice and its date is essential.
ADVICE — Keep your own copies, from day one. The beneficiary is not the petitioner: approval notices and filing receipts go to the employer and its counsel. Ask for copies of the I-140 approval notice (Form I-797) and the PERM certification as a matter of routine. Every protection in Sections 04 and 05 is easier to use with the approval date and receipt number in your own files.
SECTION 06Changing Jobs: Two Different Doors
RULE — Before any I-485: a new petition, an old date. If you change employers before an adjustment application is in play, the path is Sections 04 and 05 combined: the new employer runs its own PERM (where required) and files its own I-140, and the approved earlier petition's priority date carries across under 8 CFR 204.5(e). Nothing about the old employer's cooperation is required for the date to survive — only that the earlier approval was not revoked on one of the four grounds in Section 04.
RULE — With an I-485 pending 180 days: INA 204(j) portability. Once a Form I-485 based on the petition has been pending for at least 180 days, the statute lets the beneficiary take a new job in the same or a similar occupational classification without a new petition, evidenced through Form I-485 Supplement J. The mechanics — what "same or similar" means, when Supplement J is filed, and the risks — are owned by our employment-based green card guide's portability section, and this guide deliberately leaves them there; the I-140-side point is the one USCIS makes in its withdrawal answer: portability eligibility is one of the things a surviving, 180-day-old approval protects.
SECTION 07What Approval Unlocks
RULE — H-1B extensions beyond the six-year limit, in up-to-three-year increments. USCIS's H-1B guidance: a worker "may be eligible for an H-1B extension beyond the sixth year under 8 CFR 214.2(h)(13)(iii)(E) if you are the beneficiary of an approved immigrant visa petition under the EB-1, EB-2, or EB-3 classifications, and are eligible to be granted that immigrant status but for application of the per country or worldwide limitations on immigrant visas." The petitioner must show a visa is not available as of the H-1B filing date, and extensions are granted "in up to 3-year increments until we make a final decision to revoke the approval of the immigrant visa petition or to approve or deny your application for an immigrant visa or application to adjust status." For many workers in backlogged categories, this provision — not the green card itself — is what makes the wait survivable.
RULE — The companion one-year route runs off the queue, not the approval. Separately, 8 CFR 214.2(h)(13)(iii)(D) implements AC21 section 106(a): once 365 days have passed since a labour certification or immigrant petition was filed for you, H-1B extensions beyond year six are available in one-year increments while the case proceeds. The two routes are often used in sequence — one-year increments while the case is young, three-year increments once the I-140 is approved and the wait is purely for a visa number.
RULE — Your spouse's EAD eligibility. An approved Form I-140 naming you as principal beneficiary is one of the two bases on which your H-4 spouse may apply for employment authorisation under 8 CFR 214.2(h)(9)(iv) (the other is a granted AC21 beyond-six-years extension). Our H-4 EAD first-application guide covers that application in full.
RULE — The wait itself. Approval fixes your priority date; it does not make a visa number available. Whether you can file Form I-485 — and eventually receive the green card — turns on the Department of State's Visa Bulletin movement for your category and country of chargeability. Our guide to reading the Visa Bulletin explains the Final Action and Dates for Filing charts and how to track your date against them.
FAQFrequently Asked Questions
Is my priority date the day my I-140 was filed or approved?
Neither, in a PERM-based case: it is the date the labour certification application was filed with (accepted for processing by) the Department of Labor — 8 CFR 204.5(d). Only petitions that need no labour certification (EB-1, national interest waiver, Schedule A) take the I-140's own USCIS filing date.
I changed employers. Do I lose my priority date?
No — provided the earlier petition was approved and has not been revoked for fraud or willful misrepresentation, a revoked labour certification, or material error. Under 8 CFR 204.5(e) the date carries to your new employer's petition, though the new employer must run its own PERM and I-140; retention transfers the date, not the case.
My employer withdrew my I-140 eight months after approval. What survives?
The approval and your priority date. Under USCIS's stated rule, a withdrawal of a petition approved for at least 180 days does not lead USCIS to revoke it, and you retain the priority date. To actually adjust status you will generally need a new employer's approved I-140 (or INA 204(j) portability, if your I-485 has been pending at least 180 days).
Does premium processing improve my chances of approval?
No. Premium processing, requested on Form I-907, buys a faster adjudicative action — an approval, denial, Request for Evidence or Notice of Intent to Deny inside the published window — judged by the same standards. It does not change the evidence required or the outcome's likelihood, and it does not move your priority date.
Does an approved I-140 give me status or work authorisation by itself?
No. USCIS's instructions state that approval "does not in itself grant permanent residence or employment authorization." Your status continues to come from your nonimmigrant classification (typically H-1B); what approval adds is the retained priority date, eligibility for beyond-six-year H-1B extensions while a visa is unavailable, and your H-4 spouse's ability to apply for an EAD.
Official references and verification status
These official references were accessed and checked on 7 November 2026, and this guide's RULE items were verified claim-by-claim against them (record in the accompanying .sources.md file). Two honest limits. First, the premium processing action windows in Section 02 (15 business days for most I-140 classifications; 45 for EB-1C and EB-2 national interest waiver) are labelled PARTIALLY VERIFIED: USCIS's Form I-907 page confirms premium processing for Form I-140 directly, but USCIS's explainer page that tabulates the windows by classification could not be read first-hand in this check, so the split rests on consistent professional reporting of USCIS's published framework — confirm the window for your classification on uscis.gov. Second, no fee figure of any kind is printed in this guide: neither the Form I-140 filing fee nor the Form I-907 premium processing fee, because USCIS's Fee Schedule (Form G-1055) table could not be read reliably; both are directed to the Fee Schedule page instead. The automatic-revocation detail in Section 05 is likewise flagged PARTIALLY VERIFIED in the text.
- USCIS — Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers (labour certification 180-day validity; fees final and non-refundable; fee via Fee Schedule)
- USCIS — Petition Filing and Processing Procedures for Form I-140 (single category; I-907 fees paid separately; certification submitted within its validity period)
- USCIS Policy Manual — Vol. 6, Part E, Ch. 8: Documentation and Evidence (priority dates; retention; bona fide job offer; concurrent filing)
- USCIS — Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service (premium processing for Form I-140; upgrades; one I-907 per form)
- USCIS — Employment-Based Adjustment of Status FAQs (the 180-day withdrawal rule; INA 204(j) portability)
- USCIS — H-1B Specialty Occupations (extensions beyond the sixth year under 8 CFR 214.2(h)(13)(iii)(E))
- 8 CFR 204.5(d) — priority date of a labour-certification-based petition, and 8 CFR 204.5(e) — priority-date retention and its exceptions (regulation text, eCFR)
General educational information, not individualized legal advice. Consult a qualified U.S. immigration attorney for case-specific questions.
General information only. This guide is based on official sources publicly available and checked on the date shown on this page. Visa rules change, and consular and USCIS officers decide every case on its own facts — nothing here is a confirmation or a guarantee for your individual case, and this is not legal advice. Always confirm the current requirement on the official page linked in this guide before you act, and consider a qualified immigration attorney for your specific situation.