Backlog Processing Centers Approving Labor Cases
Posted Jul 15, 2005
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It appears that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Backlog Processing Centers (BPCs) have started adjudicating pending labor certification (LC) cases. This should come as welcome news to many of our MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers. At The Law Office of Sheela Murthy, we were pleased to receive several LC approvals from the BPCs during the week of July 5, 2005. Before then, a handful of approvals had come from the DOL "satellite" processing centers in Boston, New York, and San Francisco over the last several months, but none from the BPCs in Philadelphia and Dallas. The DOL news that the BPCs were starting to adjudicate cases was addressed in our June 3, 2005 MurthyBulletin article, Backlog Processing Centers - May 2005 Update, available at MurthyDotCom.
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Recent LC Approvals from Satellite Office and BPCs
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We received four LC approvals on July 5, 2005. One was from the DOL New York satellite processing center. The other three were from the BPCs. Of the three, one case was from Philadelphia. The other two were from Dallas. The case from Philadelphia had originally been filed in Maryland on April 26, 2001. The cases from Dallas had originally been filed in Texas on October 28 and 29, 2002. All three cases had been processed through the local State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) and forwarded to the Regional DOL offices prior to being transferred to the BPCs.
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Time Estimates for BPC Approvals
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The good news is that, after many months of waiting, the BPCs have reached a stage where they are making final decisions on long-pending cases. Of course, since this is an early batch of LC approvals that we received, there is no way of knowing how quickly the BPCs will adjudicate their pending cases. The BPCs began with 340,000 pending cases to adjudicate. They still have not issued 45-day letters in approximately half of the cases and have not entered data on all cases. For these reasons, it is uncertain whether we will continue to receive finalized case approvals regularly, but the approvals bode well for the BPC processing and approvals. The  DOL has estimated about 2 years or longer to wrap up all pending LC cases.
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FIFO Adjudication
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The DOL has stated that cases will be adjudicated in the First-In / First-Out (FIFO) order. Therefore, older cases should be adjudicated first. The State Workforce Agencies (SWAs), however, did not all follow the DOL instructions regarding boxing and sending the cases to the BPCs. Accordingly, many LC cases need to be sorted and data entered before they can be processed. Our understanding is that they are placed for adjudication in FIFO order, but that there could be cases in boxes with earlier filing dates. Thus, the waiting lines will be adjusted to reflect FIFO order as more cases are unboxed and entered into the system. It therefore may be that we will see some cases with more recent priority dates adjudicated before older cases. This problem should resolve itself once all the cases have been entered into the DOL system for BPC adjudication.
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What Should I Plan to Do?
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At The Law Office of Sheela Murthy, we will be tracking the BPC processing of LC cases closely. This is important to many employers and employees, anxious to move forward with pending labor certification cases. We receive many questions from people with pending labor certifications regarding whether they should wait or try to file under PERM. Knowing how the BPCs are progressing will help MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers with the various considerations in this important decision.