The Department of Labor announced last week that it will be suspending the processing of prevailing wage determinations (PWDs) for most case types,  including PERM labor certifications and H-1B cases – while it complies with a federal court order that requires them to reissue some 4,000 PWDs for the H-2B temporary non-agricultural visa program. The suspension will mean that some employers may be delayed in their ability to commence recruitment on or file PERM labor certification applications.  DOL has not indicated when it will resume issuing non-H-2B PWDs, but because its H-2B workload is considerable, it may not return to full-scale PWD processing for several months.

Though the suspension involves several immigration case types, PERM applications, by far, are the most severely affected due to the time-sensitivity given that the results of an employer’s labor certification recruitment are valid for just 180 days. If a request for a prevailing wage determination is delayed and an employer has commenced the recruitment phase prior to receiving the PWD, an employer’s recruitment could expire, meaning that the entire recruitment process would have to be redone before a PERM application could be filed. The effect on H-1B petitions is far less because employers can use the OFLC Wage Data Center or other independent surveys to determine the prevailing wage for an H-1B position.

DOL’s official timeframe for processing prevailing wage requests had been 60 days, but they had been turning them around in about 30 days.   It appears that the suspension is affecting PWRs filed as early as the beginning of June 2011.

Action Item for Employers: If you require a PERM Labor Certification Application be filed in order to continue employment for your H-1B visa holders who are approaching the 6-year maximum period of stay, you cannot start these cases early enough.  Please discuss strategy and planning with your immigration professional right away, or give our office a call to discuss your case concerns.  We will keep you updated as developments occur.

The DOL has designated a centralized Washington, DC location to handle Prevailing Wage Requests (PWRs) for all case types as of January 1, 2010.

PWRs for PERM, H-1Bs, H-1B1s (Chile and Singapore), H-2Bs and E-3s (for Australians) will be prepared on the PWR form that DOL rolled out for the H-2B program, form ETA-9141.  DOL has not yet offered an electronic version of this form so there isn’t any way to submit it online, neither are they accepting faxes.  If you subscribe to an immigration forms program, such as INSZoom, you can access a fillable version there.

All PWRs are to be mailed to the OFLC’s NPWHC in Washington, DC. at:  US Department of Labor-ETA, National Prevailing Wage and Helpdesk Center, Attn:  PWD Requests, 1341 G Street, NW, Suite 201, Washington, DC  20005-3142.

Here is AILA’s advance copy of the Federal Register Posting.

We’ll see how this centralized process goes.  To roll out a new system without electronic submission doesn’t make much sense.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed.