In March 2005, the United States Department of Labor has changed the Labor Certification process to a new, streamlined system called PERM. A Labor Certification is required for most employment-based green card applications, and the new PERM system has allowed our clients to obtain an approved Labor Certification in months, not years. As with the its predecessor, PERM has different recruitment requirements for professional and nonprofessional positions, as outline below:

In addition to the above advertising requirements, there other procedures required by the PERM regulations, namely, that the position be internally posted at the company and the procurement of a Prevailing Wage Determination for the position from the State Workforce Agency.

The pre-submission period of a PERM application, including all the recruitment activities generally takes approximately three months, depending on how long the Prevailing Wage Determination is taking. Therefore, even if the case is submitted six months after the start of recruitment, an applicant could still receive their Labor Certification approval within a year, as compared to the years the old process was taking.

Should an applicant already have a Labor Certification on file at the Backlog Reduction Centers, they may still choose to either do a PERM conversion, or file a new PERM case. It is important to note that the laws regulating PERM conversions are very strict, and that the two applications MUST be identical to each other, or else the old case will be withdrawn and the applicant will lose their Priority Date. Furthermore, there though the PERM process is much faster, there are certain instances which would prohibit a person from converting to the new system or filing a new application under PERM. For example, persons from China and India are currently experiencing a retrogression on visa availability, meaning that they must keep their old priority date in order to file for a green card after the Labor Certification approval. If they convert incorrectly or file a new PERM case, they will lose that priority date, and must wait years before their visa numbers are current, and they can apply for their immigrant visa. In addition, persons who are currently in the U.S. on H-1B visas, and are relying on 7th year extensions because they have used up their 6 years will lose the ability to continue extending if they file a new PERM case or convert incorrectly.

As evident, the new PERM system has its advantages and disadvantages. If you have questions on your particular case, or wish to consider a PERM application, please contact our office.