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Sunday, January 18, 2004

The Department of Labor ("DOL") has provided an update regarding the most recent Reduction in Recruitment ("RIR") processing memorandum from William L. Carlson, Chief of Foreign Labor Certification ("The Carlson Memo"), and the status of the long-awaited PERM program. The DOL update states the following:


• The purpose of the November 20, 2003 Carlson Memo was to set up a mechanism to avoid remanding large numbers of cases to the state workforce agencies ("SWAs") for supervised recruitment, which will increase SWA backlogs and increase processing delays.



• The Carlson memo addressed three categories of applications: those that would be certified, those that would be issued Notices of Findings, and those that would receive a letter offering a number of options including, but not limited to, withdrawal of the application, withdrawal of the RIR request and remand to the SWA for supervised recruitment, or re-test at the direction of the DOL Certifying Officer.
  
  
• Mr. Carlson stated that November 20, 2003, is the memorandum's effective date, with a limited exception for applications that were automatically remanded to the California Employment Development Department ("EDD") in Region VI after July 17, 2003 when auto-remands were stopped. Applications auto-remanded to the SWAs on the basis of availability after July 17, 2003 in Region VI will be returned to the Regional Office for further processing.



• The DOL Headquarters Office would like to move forward with the creation of two backlog reduction centers for currently pending traditional and RIR cases, but efforts in this area are driven by the 2004 budget delays. Gaithersburg, the pilot backlog reduction center, closed at the end of 2003. DOL has the necessary software and training materials from the pilot program for the new centers.



• The PERM regulation will not be released until there is a 2004 budget in place because the 2004 budget will be required for PERM implementation.



• Mr. Carlson confirmed that once published, implementation is still intended to be 120 days after publication of the final regulations.



• The DOL Headquarters Office plans to schedule roll-out meetings (approximately four to be held around the country, possibly in San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago and Washington, DC), prior to the implementation date. During the roll-out period, the DOL will Beta test PERM software.



Once PERM goes live, applications will no longer be accepted under RIR or the traditional process.

Because of the budget delays, implementation of the PERM program appears to have been pushed-back once again.

Click here for detailed guidance regarding the Carlson Memo.

We will provide further information regarding labor certification processing as soon as it becomes available.