Department of Labor Update – October 2003
Posted Nov 07, 2003

Regular readers of MurthyDotCom and the MurthyBulletin know that the attorneys at The Law Office of Sheela Murthy, P.C. are active members of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). AILA has selected several of its members who volunteer to liaise with the various governmental divisions involved in the immigration process. The liaisons to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) meet periodically with DOL officials to address legal and procedural issues and to obtain updates on impending DOL programs. The results of one such meeting were reported to AILA members on October 28, 2003, and are summarized here especially for our to MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers.

PERM

The DOL still expects to publish the final PERM regulation by the end of 2003. The DOL stated that they will implement PERM 120 days after the required publication in the Federal Register. (Previously, they had stated that the period between publication and implementation would be 60 days).

Before the PERM regulation may be published as a final rule in the Federal Register, the DOL must forward the rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for their comments. As of the time of this writing, the PERM regulation has not been forwarded to the OMB. The OMB has no set time in which to comment on most rules, so there is no guarantee that the OMB will approve the final rule for publication according to the timeline that the DOL is contemplating.

RIR Processing

The DOL headquarters is expected to issue field guidance on Reduction in Recruitment (RIR) processing by mid-November 2003. This guidance is expected to provide insight on adjudication of RIR applications that have been pending for lengthy periods, as well as how the DOL will consider new applications filed under RIR procedures.

Backlog Reduction Plan

Two backlog reduction centers are scheduled to open in Dallas, Texas and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The pilot backlog reduction center in Gaithersburg, Maryland, however, will be closed at the end of 2003. The two new centers are expected to become operational quickly, resulting from the testing of software and the development of training materials at the pilot office.

The various avenues outlined above are steps in the direction towards reducing labor certification backlogs; which, obviously, are desperately needed. With the implementation of the field guidance on RIR and the publication of the PERM regulations, we anticipate that years of waiting for labor certification approval will be a thing of the past. Hopefully, PERM will not make things worse in the future, with LC cases being quickly approved, only to be revoked upon DOL investigation. If this is the resulting situation, we will have solved the problem of delays with the bigger problem of uncertainty when an LC case is finally approved.