Agreed with Land_of_gorkhali that PERM is the most frustrating part. The chance of getting audited is 50%. I think once you get into audit, it will take at least 18 months for your PERM approval/denial. By the way, are you filing in eb2 category or eb3? There isn't much difference between two now (just matter of few months) though. Once your I-140 is approved, thats almost like green card unless you have criminal background, and status problem. During I-485. they just do your background check, verify if you are continuously maintaining your status, etc. While you do concurrent filing of I-140 and I-485, you can apply for AP and EAD so you can travel out of country without any issue.