PERM or Program Electronic Review Management is the first step in the US green card process. It is an employment-based immigrant visa for foreign national employees. In this article, we will share all about PERM and PERM Processing Time.
The PERM process involves a series of steps: job recruitment, obtaining a prevailing wage determination, conducting a recruitment process to demonstrate the unavailability of qualified U.S. workers, and filing a labour certification application with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
Why Is PERM Important?
A PERM approval from the U.S. Department of Labor is a prerequisite for employers to file Form I-140 (Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker). In this way, eligible foreign workers can pursue lawful permanent resident status in the United States of America.
The PWD and PERM approval is required for H1B (EB2, EB3) and L work visa applicants based on their ETA Form 9089 filing with DOL. Employer will file a prevailing wage request to the Department of Labor via its website.
The DOL will determine a prevailing wage determination (PWD) for the position and the experience level required for the job.
Mandatory Postings by Employers:
To start recruitment the employer needs to place mandatory postings:
- First and foremost being that no eligible and willing US domestic worker has applied for the job.
- He has to place an advertisement with the state workforce agency for 30 days
- Also an advertisement with the regional newspaper on two Sundays
- A Job notice at the worksite for at least ten consecutive days
- They will also participate in a job fair, placing TV or radio ads, on-campus recruiting, etc.
They can then File ETA Form – 9089 this is usually done after the 30-day mandatory period has passed. Also, no qualified U.S. worker was found for the job.
PERM Processing Time in 2024
The total PERM Processing Time varies:
Prevailing Wage Determination
To determine the prevailing wage, the DOL is currently taking more than 168 days to approve.
Post the determination of the prevailing wages cases will next be reviewed by the DOL’s expert analysts and it can take over 311 days.
Post the PWD, the Recruitment efforts start and can take around 30 to 60 days.
After filing Form 9089 it takes more than 297 days to make a formal decision on PERM. The result can be – PERM approval, PERM denial or PERM audit.
If an audit is requested by DOL then additional evidence has to be provided by the employer causing further delay. Currently, it is more than 498 days for DOL to decide on applications flagged for audit.
How to Check PERM Status?
DOL’s PERM Processing time for the applications under review can be checked each month at
https://flag.dol.gov/processingtimes
On PERM being approved, the employer can file an I-140 petition for the foreign employee.
The US Department of Labor (DOL) has released its monthly processing time updates for permanent labour certification (PERM) applications. The PERM processing times are eight days longer in November 2023 as compared to October.
The average PERM Processing Time was 346 days for adjudication by the end of November and the average processing time for audit review was 496 days.
The PERM processing times have increased in recent years due to a greater number of applications, a growing backlog of pending cases, and greater scrutiny by the DOL.
As the processing times have increased due to backlog employers must file the PERM as soon as possible to avoid any unnecessary delays in the green card process.