I got the PERM application approved in 10/06/2010 and I applied on August 2nd week. It is really great to work with Rajiv Khanna & Mathew and they will guide us to the right way so that no mistakes are made in the complete process. I really feel that I am in good hands!
The Department has posted new Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) addressing employer point of contact requirements. To view PERM Round 12 FAQs, please check attachment.
According to DOL updates as of 9/30/2010, they are working on PERM application filed in the following months.
My H-1B visa extension and my children's H-4 too were denied due to my two former lawyers' lack of expertise on immigration matters.Then, my Labor certification was denied too. Two of my children eventually had to go home when they reached 21 because of this. I thought my youngest son and I were going to go home too,until my employer contacted Atty Khanna and his associates.They are the best because they were able to fix ad refile everything. We recently received our green card. Everything they did was so organized and very meticulous, making no mistakes.I would highly recommend them to anyone.
My company said they filed the PERM application on June 30th. I asked them to send the status a month ago. The sent me a message saying that it has Prepared status in the application and the overall status as in process. Is it how it looks?
When we check status of electronically filed applications, it should say "In Process" when it is pending. That should be sufficient.
My PERM application just got denied due to the recent layoff in my company. Can I apply EB2 (schedule A) to bypass the labor certification step? Will the recent PERM denial affect the Schedule A application? Is it ok to submit the schedule A application soon or I have to wait for a certain time period?
If you are qualified, you can apply for Schedule A. I cannot think of any way the PERM denial or layoffs could cause any issues and there should be no waiting to file.
We filed a PERM application under EB-2 for a Senior Programmer Analyst’s position early this year. Three months later, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued an Audit Notification. Immediately following our response, DOL denied the application, citing that our audit response did not include a copy of the job order.
Who is considered a qualified U.S. worker for purposes of a Labor Certification?
For purposes of a Labor Certification, a qualified U.S. worker is defined as a U.S. citizen, a U.S. Legal Permanent Resident (Green Card holder), or other specially authorized alien (such as an asylee or refugee) who satisfies the minimum job requirements and is willing to take the position under the conditions and terms described in the Labor Certification application.
The processing of supervised recruitment cases is still extremely slow. Cases filed directly into supervised recruitment in January and February 2012 have still not received the initial communication from DOL or any recruitment instructions. Based on reports, it appears that DOL is not following FIFO (first in, first out)on SR cases, as there are SR cases with priority dates ranging from May 2011 to October 2011, and draft ads/ad corrections have been submitted as early as February 2012 and as late as July 2012. Has DOL provided details on SR processing dates and times?
DOL indicates that it expects to see a significant increase in the speed of processing of SR cases as well as cases under audit. Staff members who normally work on SR cases were temporarily reassigned to identify and process “straggler” cases. That project has been completed as of October 1, 2012, and DOL has moved those staff members back to their normal work. This should result in much faster processing of both SR and audit cases.
DOL has indicated that it would make sense to consolidate recruitment for Supervised Recruitment (SR) cases that are identical. Has DOL made any progress on publishing a standard that can be followed to consolidate recruitment for SR?
DOL has indicated that it is generally not opposed to consolidation of recruitment efforts in appropriate cases, and a request can be made to the SR processing e-mail box for consolidation. Even where cases are consolidated for recruitment, however, DOL will still require individual recruitment reports for each SR application.
Several newspapers (Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Sun-Times, etc.) place their online ads on Monster.com. When the SR instructions direct the placement of an ad on these newspaper websites AND on Monster.com, this means placement of the same listing twice on the same website, which is redundant. Has DOL indicated that a single advertisement on Monster.com is sufficient when the required newspaper uses Monster.com to place job advertisements online?
DOL has suggested e-mailing the SR e-mail address for clarification on particular recruitment instructions. Note, however, that the employer should still follow the recruitment instructions. The focus is whether a full labor market test was conducted that provides U.S. workers with opportunity to apply for the position. DOL is not intentionally seeking duplicate ads.
Employers may choose to withdraw cases undergoing SR for many reasons, such as the employee terminating his employment, the employee obtaining a green card through other means (such as marriage), or the costs of the required recruitment. In determining any employer-wide consequences of withdrawal during the SR process, does DOL consider the explanation as to why the SR case is being withdrawn? How can an employer best provide an explanation why the SR case is being withdrawn?
DOL indicates that it does not monitor or track particular reasons for withdrawal. DOL does, however, pay attention to the rate of withdrawal both for individual employers and overall. The withdrawal rate has decreased, but at one point was more than 10%. Such a high rate of withdrawal caused DOL concern.
Several people have reported receiving two certifications of the same PERM application, with different validity dates. In most (but not all) of these cases, when the case was first approved, no hard copy ETA 9089 was received by the attorney in the mail. When the case was “recertified,” a hard copy 9089 was generated. Has DOL identified what caused these duplicate approvals? Has DOL also communicated this problem to USCIS, as this could impact processing of an I-140 petition that was filed with a request that USCIS contact DOL to obtain a “duplicate” certification?
DOL indicates that there has been at least one case where the I-140 was approved by USCIS despite issuance of a “duplicate” certification with different dates. In that case, the DOL and USCIS were advised of the duplicate certification issue prior to the I-140 being approved.
According to DOL updates as of 11/5/2012, they are working on PERM
Applicants often have difficulty getting a response from the various email help desks (sr.processing@dol.gov, plc.atlanta@dol.gov, etc.) beyond a boilerplate acknowledgement of the inquiry. This lack of substantive response can be particularly challenging when an employer is trying to create a new PERM filing account, or if the employer’s contact is locked out of their online PERM account. Has DOL provided any details on how e-mail inquiries are handled by each of the help desks? Does DOL have required service response times? Would it be possible for a dedicated e-mail to be created to follow-up on specific matters, such as PERM account registration problems? As an example, USCIS has a dedicated follow-up e-mail for service requests, but this e-mail can only be used after a service request is made, and after a set period of time goes by without a response.
DOL indicates that it has completed its project to address “straggler” cases and has returned staff to normal job duties. This may help to improve timeliness of responses from DOL on these kinds of issues.
Recently, DOL has begun to issue audits with the following language: “The foreign worker listed on the ETA 9089 resides in [residence location], section H of the 9089 provides [work location] as the worksite. Has DOL explained how the foreign worker performs the job duties of the job opportunity given the distance between [residence location] and [work location].Is the employee permitted and/or expected to perform the duties of the job opportunity listed on ETA 9089 from his residence and/or his place of choosing?” In many cases, the two locations are quite close and are clearly within a normal commuting distance (e.g. Atlanta and Marietta,
Georgia – distance approximately 20 miles; Palisades Park and Parsippany, New Jersey – distance approximately 30 miles). In one case, the work and residence locations were less than two miles apart. Has DOL considered conducting an initial review of the distance between the residence location and work location before issuing the audit?
DOL indicates that this kind of question on an audit where the work location and residence location are close together is likely a training issue. DOL does, however, believe that it is appropriate to inquire about this kind of issue where it is unclear why the residential address and the work address are far apart from one another, and does issue audits on that basis where appropriate.
Applicants have reported frequent rejections of alternate wage surveys that have been submitted to the prevailing wage unit in support of the ETA 9141. Several of these rejections have not been due to a specific deficiency of the survey or because the survey was not a match to the position, but because not all leveling information was submitted, or because the submitted survey data was incomplete. Rather than rejecting the survey due to missing survey information, could the National Prevailing Wage Center (NPWC) instead issue a request for the missing information, so that employers are able to correct the problem, rather than have to submit a new wage request and wait two months for a decision?
DOL indicates that it does issue a Request for Information when possible, but relies on employers and attorneys to provide complete information regarding alternate wage surveys to allow the wage determination to be based upon that survey.
Rather than requiring that the full survey methodology be submitted with every prevailing wage request, can DOL recognize that certain surveys (i.e., Towers Watson, Radford, CHIPS One) employ a statistically valid methodology, and only require documentation that supports the specific wage request, such as the wage, level, location, and job description for the requested job opportunity?
DOL indicates that methodology can change within a survey among different occupations, so it is necessary for DOL to receive full survey methodology with each prevailing wage request, even for a commonly used alternate wage survey.
"When I join Rajiv Khanna and speak to Amrita about green card process somehow i got feeling that I am in good hand for green card". It is really nice to work with Rajiv Khanna's Law Office and people who works there. Specially Amrita whom I am working with my green card process. She gives really good response, explanation on the phone and email and give enough time to discuss questions and issues that I have. She does conference with Rajiv Khanna when needed for discussion. I have got my PERM approved in this process. It is really nice experience while working with them. They go through case very deeply and discuss pros and cons with us so you get better picture. Thanks for all you do Vishalkumar Patel