New LCA Not Available But Must Be Used from Jan. 19, 2001
Posted Jan 14, 2001

In the December 29, 2000 MurthyBulletin, we announced that a new version of the Labor Condition Application (LCA), which is also known as Form ETA-9035, had been issued, and indicated that the new form would be required from January 19, 2001 onwards. We also described the filing procedures for the new form. Then in the January 5, 2001 MurthyBulletin we included an article entitled Update on the New LCA Form for H1Bs, which discussed the content of the form and the accompanying instruction cover sheets.

The form we described in the January 5, 2001 article was a draft form, which the Department of Labor (DOL) issued with the word "draft" written across it. This draft form is useful for reference, as an advance notice of how the new form will look and what information it will contain. However, it is not yet in a usable format so employers / attorneys cannot yet prepare the forms to be submitted to DOL.

From January 19, 2001, as announced previously, the two older versions of the LCA will no longer be accepted and only the new form can be filed with DOL. Therefore, employers and attorneys would obviously like to start preparing the new forms so as to be ready for the change. However DOL has informed the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) that the LCA in usable format will be available only from January 18, 2001 - just one day ahead of time. Obviously, this delay is likely to cause inconvenience to employers and prospective H1B employees. The Law Office of Sheela Murthy, P.C., will post updates as more information becomes available.