RIR Conversion Regulation Published by DOL
Posted Aug 05, 2000

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued the long-awaited RIR conversion regulation, which will allow many "regular" labor certification cases to be converted to RIR (reduction in recruitment) in order to speed processing. As many MurthyBulletin readers are aware, RIR is a streamlined way of processing a labor certification. The employer demonstrates efforts it has made within the past 6 months to recruit U.S. workers for the advertised position. If DOL finds those recruitment efforts to be adequate based on the employer’s pattern of recruitment, the employer is excused from further advertising, and the case can be approved relatively quickly.

The regulation, published on July 26, 2000, is a proposed regulation. This means that DOL is soliciting comments and will then consider these comments before finalizing the new rule. The deadline for comments is August 25, 2000. Once the regulation becomes final, employers will be able to request that a backlogged labor certification case be converted to the RIR processing method, provided all of the following criteria are met:

a) Labor Certification application was filed on or before July 26, 2000;

b) Case has not yet been forwarded to the regional office of DOL, but rather is still at the state level labor office; and

c) Recruitment procedures through the state labor office have not yet occurred.

In the remarks that accompanied the regulation, DOL described the conversion procedure as a backlog reduction effort. DOL has already made substantial progress in reducing backlogs; converting cases "in the pipeline" to RIR would allow DOL to clear a large portion of the backlog that still remains.

In this context, DOL indicated that it was necessary to impose a cut-off date (July 26, 2000) to avoid further clogging the system. Some background explanation may be helpful to understand the situation. Under the current RIR process, the application cannot be filed until recruitment efforts have been completed. The case cannot be assigned a priority date until it is submitted, so the current procedure involves a trade-off – the delay in getting a priority date is outweighed by the advantage of faster processing. Enabling a case to be converted to RIR would encourage many employers and attorneys to "have their cake and eat it too," that is, they would file large numbers of cases quickly as "regular" cases before any ads are placed, and then advertise and request RIR conversion. Imposing a cut-off date avoids this problem and ensures that the new procedures work in the intended manner, to clear the already existing case backlogs.

The Law Office of Sheela Murthy, P.C. applauds this practical and sensible effort by DOL to make the process work better for employers and their foreign national employees in cases where there is a recognized shortage of labor in a tight labor market in the U.S.