Labor Certification

• Why Labor Certification

• Who Should Consider a Labor Certification

• Job Recruitment is the Key

• RIR

• PERM

• Reasons to Choose Our Services

• Application Preparation

Most of the employment-based immigration applications must start up by the employer's petitioning to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to obtain the Labor Certification before an immigration petition can be filed with the Immigration Services. Before any labor certification can be issued by the DOL, the employer must establish the following conditions:

• The offered position is a full time and permanent work opportunity;
• No qualified US workers who are available, willing and able to fill the position can be found;
• The employment will not adversely affect the wages and conditions of the similarly employed U.S. workers.

Who Should Consider a Labor Certification:

A labor certification is required for:

• EB-2 petition without National Interest Waiver;
• EB-3 petition for holders of bachelor's degree, skilled workers, and unskilled workers.

In other words, you need a labor certification:

• If you are not qualified under EB-1 Extraordinary Ability, Outstanding Professors and Researchers, and Multinational Executives and Managers;
• If you are not qualified under EB-2 National Interest Waiver;
• If you are not qualified for EB-4 Religious Workers;
• If you are not qualified for EB-5;
• If you are not qualified for a Physical therapist or a registered nurse;
• If you are not qualified under any of the family-based immigration categories, diversity immigrants, refugees, and asylees.

Job Recruitment Is the Key:

Traditional Labor Certification:

In a traditional labor certification case, the SWA (State Workforce Agency) local office will supervise the employer's recruitment campaign. Three steps of recruitment are usually conducted simultaneously:

• Placement of a job order by the SWA through that state's job bank, and simultaneous search of the job bank by computer.
• Posting of a notice of the job opportunity by the employer at the place of intended employment.
• Placement of an advertisement by the employer for three consecutive days in a newspaper of general circulation in the area of intended employment, or for one day in an appropriate journal or professional publication

Special Handling Cases:

• College and University Professors

Labor certification applications may be approved based on the different standard: if there are no available U.S. workers who are at least "equally qualified" with the alien even if they meet the employer's minimum requirements. In addition, the requirement on the recruitment documentation is somewhat different from that of the regular labor certification.

RIR (Reduction In Recruitment):

Since the late 1990s, RIRs (Reduction in Recruitment) have been widely used by employers to obtain expedited labor certification.

An successful RIR petition must meet the following conditions:

• Employer’s ability to convincingly demonstrate to the DOL that it underwent a "pattern of recruitment" within the six months prior to filing the application, and

• The employer offered the position to U.S. workers at the "prevailing wage."

If the Labor Department is satisfied with the employer's recruitment efforts, then it may issue labor certification within a few months, as opposed to a few years.

While Reduction in Recruitment is an attractive option to expedite labor certification in general, it works best for firms with a demonstrable, consistent track-record of recent recruiting and hiring.

PERM (Program Electronic Review Management):

In May 2002, the DOL proposed a new labor certification program (commonly referred to as PERM) to replace the current program (traditional or RIR labor certification),  which is expected to commence some time in 2004.

When officially implemented, the program will use an attestation and audit system to expedite the certification of permanent employment cases, and to provide relief from the staggering labor certification backlogs in many jurisdictions.

The DOL has indicated that it plans to keep multiple certification tracks: (1) Continue process the already-filed RIR or traditional cases under the old rules; (2) New cases must comply with PERM regulations; and (3) already-filed cases may be refiled as PERM cases, with priority date retained, provided that the cases comply with PERM's more stringent requirements on recruitment.

For more information on proposed PERM rules, click here.

Comparison of RIR and PERM Recruitment

Reasons to Choose Our Services:

We offer expert, timely, diligent, and responsive handling of your application that tailors to your specific situation to maximize its chance for approval.

• Free and comprehensive evaluation of your credential and work experience to determine which category of employment petition fits best;
• Help the employer to determine the most appropriate job title to be sought for the certification;
• Review and suggest the appropriate minimum job duties, requirement and job descriptions that are acceptable to the SWA;
• Analyze the proposed wage to see if it meets the standard of prevailing wage of the particular geographic area where the job will be performed;
• Assist the employer in the job recruitment campaign by choosing the appropriate channel and manner of publication suitable for a particular industry or field;
• Document and summarize the employer's job recruitment efforts;
• Make sure the employer's compliance with the law;
• Assemble and package your entire application, and cater it to the adjudicator's taste;
• No hidden attorney fees;
• Free consultations on other related  immigration issues while the case is pending with the USCIS;
• Advise the employer and/or you on the labor certification post filing issues, such as, job transfer, merge, travel, loss of employment, and others;
• Follow the case development till its approval.

Application Preparation:

1. Employer's recruitment campaign; (6 month)
2. Attorney prepares the summary of the employer's recruitment efforts, and submits all necessary documents requested by the RIR or PERM;
3. Send application to the SWA;
4. Send application to the local SWA district office for review and certification;
5. Sometimes, RFE is requested by the SWA to clarify certain matters of supporting documents submitted or missing;
6. Approval or rejection of the labor certification;
7. If approved, file I-140 and I-485 concurrently with the Service Center. If rejected, appeal timely to the AAO.