The Department of Labor (DOL) has been increasing enforcement measures in recent months leading to a significant increase in the amount of audits and extended processing times for PERM labor certification applications. At a recent American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) conference held in Chicago, members of the AILA DOL Liaison Committee discussed processing times for PERM certifications and quality control measures put into place by the DOL for ensuring that all employers are complying in full with the PERM regulations.

Increased Processing Times - DOL has increased the amount of audits issued on pending PERM applications, resulting in a long backlog in the number of pending cases and dramatically increasing the amount of time required for PERM certification. The DOL is currently processing all PERM applications in four separate queues: 1. Cases approved without audit (90 to 120 day backlog at present); 2. Audited cases (16 month backlog at present); 3. Cases denied for clear government error and appeal pending (9 month backlog at present); and 4. Cases denied for non-government error and appeal pending (26 month backlog at present). DOL has been increasing the number of audits issued on cases which can significantly slow the processing time for a case; employers would be wise to start the permanent residency process for employees as early as possible, and should assume that a case will be audited.

More “Quality Control” Checks - In addition to issuing random audits and audits for common issues like job requirements that may exceed what the DOL considers to be the normal requirements for a job, the DOL has put into place a fraud unit to identify inconsistencies in job requirements for the same job position. Although the DOL was not present at the conference to provide further clarification, it was reported that the department has apparently put into place software that is able to compare the job requirements for all job positions for which a company files a PERM labor certification application. The DOL is reportedly looking for inconsistencies between job requirements for the same position and is expected to audit employers who do not consistently recruit with the same requirements for the same job position.

Tafapolsky & Smith will continue to monitor DOL’s PERM enforcement activities and will report new developments as they arise.

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