The Department of Labor (DOL) through the American Immigration Lawyers Association released information to account for the fact that DOL does not appear to be adhering to a processing cases on a first in, first out basis. The DOL indicated that a number of factors impact the order in which a case ultimately adjudicated relative to other cases in the permanent labor certification process.

In developing the backlog reduction system, the DOL determined the most efficient approach was to establish two centers with the goal of keeping the overall productivity rate for the two centers approximately the same.

In some cases, applications with an earlier priority date may be processed or reach disposition later than newer applications. Assuming two applications with the same priority date, there are several factors that account for different processing times for some applications. These include the type of application (RIR or non-RIR), the stage of processing at which the application was received by the BEC (applications received from the regions have recruitment completed, and are further along than those received from the states), the dates of other applications pending at each center (which determines each application's place within the FIFO queue), the quality of the application (applications that raise questions take longer), and the response time of the employer to center requests for confirmation to continue processing the application.

As we receive more information on this issue we will post it to our website.

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