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| Friday, January 18, 2008 |
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PERM Recruitment - Does the Left Hand Know What the Right Hand is Doing?
By admin @ 11:44 AM :: 117 Views ::
0 Comments :: News, Labor Certification (PERM), Other
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If you have gone through the recruitment process for a PERM labor certification application, you know how extensive and exhaustive that process can be. Companies going through the labor certification process for professional positions must advertise in six different venues. Three mandatory types of recruitment are: the state job bank, two Sunday print ads, the internal posting. The three alternate types are chosen from a list of ten additional recruitment methods.
One of the most frequently used options on this alternate list is an internet job search website, and one of the most popular of those is American’s Job Exchange (AJE) (formerly American’s Job Bank). The issue that sometimes arises is that a few state workforce agencies actually use AJE for their own state job bank postings. Good practitioners are very careful to make sure they are not duplicating advertising efforts by using AJE as an alternative advertising option when the state in which the position is located uses AJE themselves.
Unfortunately, it appears that the Atlanta office of the Department of Labor (DOL) must be unaware of which states post to AJE. One example is the State of Florida. Although the Florida State Workforce Agency has confirmed that they do not post their job openings on AJE, the Atlanta DOL has denied PERM certifications for just that reason - stating that AJE as an alternate form of recruitment was invalid because Florida had already posted the job there.
What could be more frustrating than waiting months for an important application to be processed only to have it denied by officer error? Trying to CORRECT that error! There is no email communication, and calls are rarely - if ever – returned. Filing an appeal seems to be the only method of getting through to the office, but appeals are languishing at the Atlanta office for many months, with no end in sight. Unfortunately for these foreign national workers, it seems that the best option is starting over and re-filing the application. As difficult as the PERM process is anyway, incorrect and inconsistent decisions by the DOL is making navigating this process even more difficult.
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| Tuesday, January 08, 2008 |
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Priority Dates, Immigrant Visa Availability - What Does It All Mean?
By admin @ 4:28 AM :: 340 Views ::
0 Comments :: News, Labor Certification (PERM), Visa Bulletin, I-140 Petitions, I-485 Adjustment of Status
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Having been immigration lawyers for over a decade, we have provided advice to thousands of immigrants on a variety of immigration matters. One of the most difficult areas of immigration law to explain to an intending immigrant is the concept of priority dates and immigrant visa numbers. If you have had a consultation with a lawyer on obtaining permanent residency, you may have heard a lawyer say, "you have to wait until an immigrant visa number is available and your priority date becomes current." That sounds nice, but what do all of those words mean?
A 'priority date' is the date a labor certification or immigrant petition (I-140 or I-130) is filed on your behalf. The date the case is received by the government agency is your priority date. For example, if you are an employee of Corporation Inc. and they file a labor certification for you that is received by the Department of Labor on January 11, 2008, that becomes your priority date for the rest of your case. If a labor certification is not needed for your case, the date an I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker is filed on your behalf is the priority date. In the family immigration context, if you are a U.S. permanent resident and you file an I-130 Petition for Alien Relative for your spouse in Russia on January 10, 2008, that date becomes your spouse's priority date. These are just a few examples of how a priority date can be set for an intending immigrant.
An 'immigrant visa' is the legal term for permanent residency or "green card". The U.S. government created per-country limits on immigrant visa or permanent residency availability. There is a maximum number of family-based and employment-based immigrant visas that can be issued to citizens of each country in a fiscal year. If the demand for immigrant visas exceeds the numbers allotted for a country in that year, an immigrant visa would be 'unavailable'.
So what does an 'immigrant visa' have to do with a 'priority date?' The Department of State issues a Visa Bulletin every month that provides the date of immigrant visa availability for all employment and family-based preference categories. If an intending immigrant has a priority date that is on or before the date listed in the Visa Bulletin for his/her preference category and nationality, then a visa is available for that person. An available visa would allow the applicant to apply for an I-485 adjustment of status or initiate consular processing of their residency application outside the United States.
For example, Corporation Inc. files a labor certification on your behalf on January 10, 2008 and it was received by the Department of Labor on January 11, 2008. That is your priority date. Your labor certification was then approved on June 15, 2008. Your employer can file an I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker on your behalf once the labor certification is approved. However, whether or not you can file an I-485 Adjustment of Status Application depends on whether an immigrant visa is available to you. You would need to look at the Department of State Visa Bulletin for June, check the priority dates for your preference category and country, and see if your priority date is on or before that date. If so, you can go ahead and file the I-485 adjustment because a visa number is available. If your priority date is later than the date in the Visa Bulletin for your preference category, you will have to check the Visa Bulletin in each of the subsequent months to see if the date has changed. Only if an immigrant visa is available based on your priority date can your residency case move forward to completion.
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| Sunday, July 15, 2007 |
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USCIS Issues Clarification on Reciept Date on Labor Certification Substitutions
By admin @ 7:31 AM :: 317 Views ::
0 Comments :: News, Labor Certification (PERM), I-140 Petitions
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USCIS announced that it will accept labor certification substitution requests in the context of Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, filings it receives on Monday, July 16, 2007. USCIS previously announced that it would reject all labor certification substitution requests filed on or after July 16, 2007. The new DOL regulation that prohibits substitutions of an alien beneficiary on any application for permanent labor certification will go in effect July 17, 2007 and not July 16, 2007.
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| Friday, June 08, 2007 |
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USCIS Announces New Filing Procedures for I-140 Petitions; Eliminates Labor Certification Substitution
By admin @ 7:53 AM :: 248 Views ::
0 Comments :: News, Labor Certification (PERM), I-140 Petitions
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The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) is instituting new procedures for filing a Petition for Alien Worker (I-140) that requires an approved labor certification application. These procedural changes are in response to the Department of Labor's (DOL) final rule on labor certifications published on May 17, 2007.
The new regulation will significantly impact the filing of Form I-140 petitions with USCIS because it:
* Prohibits substitution of alien beneficiaries on any permanent labor certification application after the application has been filed with the DOL.
* Establishes a 180-day time period within which a DOL-approved labor certification must be filed with the USCIS in support of a Form I-140 petition in order to remain valid.
* Requires that any labor certification approved by DOL prior to July 16, 2007 be filed with USCIS in support of a Form I-140 petition within 180 days after the effective date of the DOL final rule (July 16, 2007) in order for the certification to remain valid.
USCIS will continue to accept and adjudicate labor certification substitutions until the effective date of July 16, 2007.
Please note that any I-140 petition that is filed outside of the labor certification effective dates outlined above will be rejected by the USCIS.
Also, the new DOL rules require that employers pay all attorney's fees and other costs associated with the labor certification process after the effective date of July 16, 2007.
Please stay tuned to www.bashyamspiro.com for additional updates.
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| Sunday, February 25, 2007 |
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DOL Proposes Massive Changes in Labor Certification Processing
By admin @ 5:30 PM :: 293 Views ::
0 Comments :: News, Labor Certification (PERM)
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The Department of Labor is proposing to make several significant changes to the way labor certification applications are processed. If passed, these proposals would seriously impact the way labor certification applications are approached by both employers and foreign nationals. The proposals include:
Requiring employers to pay all attorneys’ and other fees associated with the labor certification process. Currently, employers are not required to pay any expenses associated with the permanent residence process for employees. We have found that employers have taken a variety of approaches to handling such costs, ranging from payment of all legal and related expenses for an employee to requiring the employee to pay all such expenses. While the proposal is designed to combat fraud, we believe that the proposal would make it very difficult for many small, non-profit, and government employers to sponsor foreign workers for labor certification.
Imposing a 45-day deadline for the filing of I-140, Immigrant Worker Petitions, based on an approved labor certification. Under current law, labor certifications are valid indefinitely. We expect that, if promulgated, the DOL’s proposal will create great difficulty for employers and their foreign workers to timely process I-140 petitions for numerous reasons, including financial impediments, the unavailability of critical personnel to timely process the paperwork, and the inability to obtain necessary supporting paperwork within the requisite time period, among numerous others.
Eliminating the ability of employers to substitute foreign workers on labor certification applications. Currently, employers may replace a beneficiary of a labor certification with another foreign worker who possesses qualifications that meet or exceed the requirements of the application. The proposal would invalidate the labor certification for anyone but the beneficiary shown on the original labor certification.
The DOL is scheduled to act on these proposals by April 2007. While it is not certain that the proposals will be passed (or passed as written), we strongly encourage employers who require their foreign workers to pay for labor certification cases to get started immediately. We also urge foreign workers with pending labor certification applications to act now to obtain supporting documentation confirming their qualifications for an immigrant petition.
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