Immigration News  |
| Changes in immigration that impact your life. |
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| DOL publishes final PERM Regulation |
| December 27, 2004 |
The U.S. Department of Labor has published a new regulation for the department's
Permanent Foreign Labor Certification (PERM) program. The PERM program helps meet
workforce needs when there are no available American workers to fill an available
job. The Department of Labor is able to process requests to fill vacancies with
foreign workers only after employers affirm to the department that no American
workers are available.
“The regulation creates a fair and efficient system for reviewing applications
to certify foreign workers while maintaining safeguards for American workers,”
said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training Emily Stover DeRocco.
The department's Employment and Training Administration (ETA) will open two new
national processing centers in Chicago and Atlanta to review applications. The
new program will accept the electronic filing of applications, thereby significantly
reducing paperwork and allowing for prompt approval or rejection of requests for
labor certification. Electronic filing also will enable the department to conduct
automated screening of applications and identify applications for audits.
Once a permanent labor certification is issued by the department, an employer
must then petition the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the State Department
to complete the visa approval process.
Under the previous program, a backlog of more than 300,000 applications for labor
certification had built up. To address this backlog, the department recently announced
the establishment of two temporary Backlog Elimination Centers to expedite processing
of these applications. The centers, located in Dallas and Philadelphia, coordinate
with state workforce agencies and the Employment and Training Administration's
Division of Foreign Labor Certification to address the backlog.
For a complete version of the Permanent Labor Certification final rule click
here.
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