United States | PERM, prevailing wage processing updates as of June 1

The Labor Department has posted updated processing times for permanent labor certification (PERM) applications and prevailing wage determination (PWD) requests.

PERM Processing Times: As of June 1, the department was adjudicating applications filed in May 2023 and earlier, conducting audit reviews on applications filed in December 2022 and earlier, and reviewing appeals for reconsideration filed in August 2023 and earlier.

Average Number of Days to Process PERM Applications

Determinations      Month                   Calendar Days

Analyst Review        March 2024            387

Audit Review            March 2024            478

PWD Processing Times: As of June 1, the National Prevailing Wage Center was processing PWD requests filed in January 2024 and earlier for H-1B OEWS cases and December 2023 and earlier for PERM OEWS cases. For H-1B non-OEWS cases, the department was processing requests filed in June 2023 and earlier. For PERM non-OEWS cases, the department was processing requests filed in April 2023 and earlier. Redeterminations were being considered on appeals filed in January 2024 and earlier for H-1B cases and December 2023 for PERM cases. Finally, Center Director Reviews were being conducted for both H-1B and PERM cases filed in August 2023 and earlier.

BAL Analysis: BAL’s internal case tracking is mostly consistent with the Labor Department’s published processing times. Our internal data is indicating that for PERM a May 2023 issuance is in progress. For PWDs, we are seeing many validity start dates for December 2023 and several for January 2024.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

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