October 15, 2009
PERM Audits
The Department of Labor (DOL) announced that approximately 37% (24,600) of the total pending 65,000 PERM cases are being audited. Due to continued pressure from both the Government Accountability Office and the Office of Inspector General, DOL expects to continue auditing significant numbers of cases.
New Prevailing Wage Center
DOL has rented space in Washington, D.C. for the new Prevailing Wage Center, but no move-in date has been provided. This will centralize the PERM prevailing wage function currently carried out by state employment offices or SWAs (state workforce agencies.) Since the new Center is not yet in existence, DOL cannot state how long Prevailing Wage Determinations will take.
DOL Help Desk
The DOL Help Desk will be brought into the new D.C. office, thus eliminating the need for Atlanta and Chicago to field inquiries and thereby allowing those offices to focus on processing cases.
Launch of new PERM filing system delayed
No date has been set for the launch of the new online automated PERM system. Please note that DOL announced that employer clearance through iCert (the current online system for submission of the Labor Condition Application connected to H-1B and related cases) is not equal to clearance through PERM, and therefore employers who clear iCert may still have to go through a business existence check when filing a PERM labor certification.
