Highlights from the DOL Open Forum at Annual Conference 2009
Cite as "AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 09061965 (posted Jun. 19, 2009)" DOL is working on administrative and system enhancements including (1) Rolling out larger-scale supervised recruitment from the Atlanta National Processing Center by October 1, 2009; (2) Centralizing processing of all prevailing wage determinations (a high priority for DOL), and (3) Centralizing all Help Desk functions in the national Office of Foreign Labor Certification in Washington D.C. by January 1, 2010. DOL anticipates that the PERM section of the iCert portal will take longer to complete than anticipated and will not be ready for deployment until after September 2009. An exact launch date is still unknown at this time. If a PERM application was filed one year earlier than announced processing times, and it has not received either an audit, an approval, or a denial, applicants should follow up with DOL by e-mail. See AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 09012860 for listing of DOL e-mails. If an appropriate response is not received back from DOL, you may email reports@aila.org. Current statistics regarding PERM Processing are as follows: about 58,000 applications are currently pending. Of these, 54% are under final review, 38% are in audits, 6% on appeal, and the remainder are awaiting business existence checks or other. Current statistics regarding Supervised Recruitment are as follows: 25% of the cases were withdrawn after supervised recruitment was ordered, about 45% have been denied, about 11% have been certified, and about 20% are pending. DOL is changing the names on the tabs of the iCert system to better communicate where it posts current PERM processing times. DOL will shut down the H-1B/LCA iCert portal on August 14, 2009, to deploy a new system release that will add significant LCA functionality for users. The enhancements include the ability to assign permissions to sub-accounts, the ability to transfer employer profiles from master to sub-accounts, and the ability to withdraw LCAs electronically. Until the system release, users may withdraw LCAs by e-mailing to lca.chicago@dol.gov with a request that should include the reason for requesting withdrawal. DOL encourages users to submit prevailing wage requests for H-2B petitions as early as possible.