Permanent residency petitions can be based upon several .

CU Boulder Employment-Based Applications

ISSS assists sponsoring departments and their qualifying foreign national employees hired into permanent positions with the permanent residency application process.

  • Permanent positions are defined as those in a tenure or tenure-track stream, or a permanent research position (i.e., long term and indefinite). Post-doctoral positions do not meet this requirement.
  • ISSS requires a memo from the Department Chairperson verifying that a job is permanent.

Under the employment-based criteria, ISSS will use one of the following avenues to pursue permanent residency for qualifying permanent department hires:

Recruitment for a Position that may have International Candidates

If you think you will have international candidates in your applicant pool for your tenure/tenure-track/permanent position:

University Authority for Filing Labor Certification Applications and Permanent Residency Petitions

All CU Boulder labor certification applications and immigrant petitions must be filed by ISSS. University policy precludes an attorney from filing these petitions on behalf of our institution for an employee. Foreign nationals may retain an attorney, however their attorney cannot represent the university’s interests without the express permission of university counsel.

In applying for immigrant status for a prospective international faculty member or researcher, the university undertakes a considerable responsibility under immigration laws. Departments must exercise care to use the employment authority of the university to obtain immigration benefits for aliens only when it is consistent with the university's goals, programs, and standards and within the intent of immigration law. 

  • ISSS requires careful and complete documentation for every immigration benefit application filed. The penalty for knowingly providing false information in an immigration application is a fine of up to $10,000 and imprisonment of up to five years (Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 1001).