Priority ate is a United States immigration concept. A common path to the green card in the United States is to obtain it through a family based or employment based petition, a very complex process that can take many years to complete. When a foreign worker, usually on a temporary work visa such as an H-1B with a U.S. employer, begins the green card process, the first step is to complete labor certification to prove that a qualified American worker could not be found to fill the position the foreign worker is taking. The labor certification process has undergone a number of changes in recent years, from the laborious supervised recruitment process, to the Reduction-in-Recruitment (RIR) process, and now to the much faster online PERM system. In all cases, the date the labor certification is filed (directly with the United States Department of Labor for PERM applications, or with a State Workforce Agency for RIR applications) is assigned as the individual's Priority Date. As soon as the labor certification is approved, the immigrant's employer may file an I-140 form Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker petition with the USCIS to establish the immigrant's eligibility to file the I-485 from Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, i.e. the green card application itself.