PERM Projected for July 2003
Posted Dec 27, 2002

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced April 2003 as the projected date for publication of a rule implementing the PERM process for labor certifications. If published at the estimated time, the rule should become effective in July 2003. As regular readers of the MurthyBulletin and MurthyDotCom may recall, the long-awaited, proposed PERM rule was published last spring, as reported May 13, 2002 in our article, Proposed Regulations on PERM Published May 2002.

PERM is essentially a massive streamlining of the labor certification process. Basics of the PERM program were summarized in our previous article, referenced above. At this time, there is no indication of the nature and extent of any changes between the regulation proposed in May 2002 and the interim implementing regulation projected for April 2003. Immigration law firms, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), and other interested organizations submitted voluminous comments citing flaws and problematic issues with the proposed PERM regulation. By law, the DOL must consider and address these comments from AILA and others in its final regulation.

PERM in any form will mean substantial changes in the area of labor certifications. It is not clear what the impact will be upon those with pending labor certifications, or whether they will be allowed to convert their existing cases to PERM. Moreover, the question for many of our readers will be whether one should file a labor certification case now or wait until PERM regulations are finalized. Most lawyers and scholars believe it is usually safest to file sooner in order to obtain an earlier priority date and to possibly be able to convert regularly filed cases to PERM cases. For those who may wish to seek an H1B seventh-year extension, waiting may not even be an option, as the labor certification filing must be made at least 365 days prior to an extension request beyond the expiration of the H1B six-year period.

PERM has been of great interest to many MurthyBulletin and MurthyDotCom readers as it will undoubtedly bring substantial changes to the labor certification process. Understanding the importance of this issue to those undergoing any employment-based immigration process, we at The Law Office of Sheela Murthy, P.C. will continue to closely follow and report to our readers any developments in the area of labor certification.