The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) recently released an update on developments at the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Backlog Processing Centers (BPCs).   AILA reports that more than 180,000 applications for alien employment certification (AEC) have been shipped from the various State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) to the BPCs.  This figure does not include the thousands of AECs that were shipped from DOL's Regional Offices to the BPCs, so the total number of files presently at the BPCs exceeds 200,000 and continues to grow.

DOL has entered data for 86,000 cases into the BPC database system, and has issued over 40,000 Center Receipt Notification Letters (CRNLs), also known as "45 day letters", as employers are given 45 days to respond.  Through February 2005, DOL reports receiving less than 300 withdrawal requests, so it would appear that most employers are electing to continue the processing of their cases.

Each BPC is staffed with approximately 100 personnel (including contractors).  To date, the BPCs have focused primarily on data entry of transferred cases, but are now beginning to conduct substantive review of these cases.   Substantive review for regulatory compliance is required before DOL may issue a decision on the application.  Supplementing the efforts of the BPCs are the satellite offices of DOL in New York, Boston and San Francisco.  DOL reports that these offices will process the cases they have retained until January 2006.

DOL currently projects that they will complete the backlog reduction process in 24 to 30 months, assuming that DOL has adequate resources.  DOL anticipates completing initial data entry on all transferred cases by the end of summer 2005.  After data entry is completed on all cases, BPC staff will work exclusively on case processing.  No specific processing times were offered by DOL.  DOL confirmed that it has no plans to give faster processing to certain occupations.

AILA inquired if DOL plans to introduce on-line case status, so that individuals may access their case status.  At present, DOL has no on-line case status, but plans are in place to provide more information on the DOL website regarding which cases have shipped.  DOL also plans to set up an email inquiry system for individuals to find out whether a case is located at a particular BPC.  Any status inquiries would be answered by contractor staff.

AILA also asked about what standard of review would be applied to Reduction in Recruitment (RIR) filings.  Many immigration practitioners have hoped that one of the main benefits of the BPCs would be the application of a single, national RIR standard, replacing the myriad RIR rules that developed over the years in the 10 Regional Offices of DOL.  Unfortunately, for those who hoped for a national standard, DOL plans to try apply the RIR standard that was in effect in the region where the case was originally filed.  How DOL plans to apply a variety of different case review standards in a uniform manner was not explained. 

Jackson & Hertogs continues to monitor developments at the BPCs, and will update clients as events warrant. Please note that as we receive BPC 45 day letters, we are contacting clients. If we haven't contacted you, we have not yet received a letter on your case. Based on data input projections, it is likely that we will not be contacted on all cases before the end of the summer.

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