PERM - Labor Certification

The head-quarters for the sponsoring employer were located outside the United States.  The applicant worked in the United States at a branch office, which had fewer than 5 employees.  Because of the head-quarters location and the US branch office size, the DOL questioned the existence of the company in the United States.  We responded with evidence of the sponsoring employer’s business in the United States and the PERM Petition was certified.

The sponsoring employer was a small company (less than 20 employees) that was sponsoring the brother of the president.  The Labor Certification was audited due to the familial relationship, which is a significant issue in the PERM process. We successfully responded by proving that the relationship between the president and the applicant did not influence or affect the PERM Processing.  The I-140 petition and I-485 petitions were approved, and the applicant received his permanent residency. 

In a case decided yesterday, we had filed an appeal to BALCA against a PERM denial by the Certifying Officer (“CO”).  The ground for denial was that the Job Order did not provide the exact salary offered to the foreign worker.  We showed in our appeal that the fault lay with the Job Order form of the State Workforce Agency.  The form did not permit us to enter the higher end of the wage range for our job, where we had offered a wage range instead of an exact figure.  The CO appears to have agreed with us and has withdrawn denial and certified our case.