Over the past few months, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has made significant changes to its organizational structure for the foreign labor certification program.  The vast majority of alien employment certifications (AECs) filed prior to March 28, 2005 will be processed by DOL at one of two National Backlog Processing Centers (BPCs), located in Philadelphia and Dallas.  The remaining AECs will be processed at one of three satellite processing centers, located in San Francisco, Boston, and New York.  On March 28, 2005, new DOL regulations for AECs will go into effect, and all AECs filed on or after that date will be processed under the PERM program.

DOL began transferring AECs from the various Regional Offices to the two BPCs in October 2004.  Generally, the files being transferred out of the Regional Offices are the oldest cases in DOL's backlog, as they have already been reviewed and processed by the appropriate State Workforce Agency (SWA) prior to the transfer to DOL. 

DOL is also transferring pending AEC applications from the various SWAs to the BPCs.  These transfers began in December 2004, and are continuing.  DOL estimates that all cases filed with the SWAs and the Regional Offices will be transferred to a BPC no later than April 22, 2005. 

DOL has provided no information on BPC processing times.  DOL has stated that it plans to complete processing of the entire AEC caseload within 24 to 30 months; however, there are no time estimates on individual case processing at the BPCs or satellite offices.  DOL has stated that it plans to process AECs on a first in, first out (FIFO) basis, so the older a case is, the sooner it should be processed by DOL.  DOL recently removed all permanent labor certification processing time information from its website, and now is only providing general information about backlog processing.

Please note that, unfortunately, we are unable to make any inquiries into the status of these pending AECs; we must wait for DOL to reach each case in its respective queue.

The BPCs will issue a Transfer Notice after physical receipt of an AEC from the SWAs or the DOL Regional Offices.  The Transfer Notice will ask the employer if it wishes to continue with the processing of the application.  Additionally, the letter will advise the employer if any information is missing from the AEC application.  The employer will be given 45 days to respond to DOL.  If the employer fails to respond within 45 days, the application will be cancelled by DOL.  As we receive Transfer Notices from the BPCs, we are notifying affected employers and individuals.

For more information on DOL's reorganization and changes in labor certification processing, please check the news updates on our website.

© 1999-2012, Jackson & Hertogs - All rights reserved