Category: Prevailing Wage
PERM + PWD Processing Times Update – Fall 2025
As of September 2025, PERM Labor Certification processing continues to show modest improvement. Employers and foreign workers should still prepare for a multi-stage timeline—but signs point to sub-15-month adjudication times returning soon, based on both Department of Labor (DOL) disclosures and real-world tracking from our clients. Current PERM Processing According to DOL’s official processing times:…
Proffered Wage Must Exceed State’s Minimum Wage, Not Just the Prevailing Wage (Federal)
As DOL continues to experience delays in issuing PWD and adjudicating PERM applications, employers must be careful when setting the proposed wage during the PERM process. It must exceed not just the prevailing wage as set by DOL but also exceed the state’s (where worksite is located) minimum wage. You do not want to wait…
Prevailing Wage Determinations Have Slowed Down; FIFO No Longer a Certainty
Update January 30, 2023 Just received a batch of prevailing wage determinations (PWD). It seems DOL is issuing determinations of wage requests filed in July 2022. We also got back PWDs of our earliest requests that have been pending since April 2022. No pending wage requests filed before July 2022. Update January 10, 2023 We…
Wages Get Updated on July 1, 2021
Every year on July 1st, wages get updated. It may go up or down. But generally, changes are minor compared to previous years. To find the wages for the current year and previous years, employers may visit the wage library. In our experience, wages sometimes do change substantially from one year to the next. The…
New Prevailing Wage Request Form and Other Updates from DOL
The new Form ETA-9141, Application for Prevailing Wage Determination is set to go live on May 3, 2021. DOL held a webinar on April 27, 2021, regarding the new changes to the form. A presentation slide may be downloaded here. Any saved drafts that haven’t been submitted will be deleted on May 3, 2021. Other…
DOL Announces Accommodations for Employers in Texas and Oklahoma
DOL’s OFLC has released a FAQ regarding the extent of its accommodations for employers in Texas and Oklahoma who were impacted by the recent weather disaster. Accommodations include, for example, deadline flexibility and guidance relating to unintended changes in worksite. Anyone in these states who has on-going cases relating to PERM, labor certification, prevailing wage…
Final Rule Creating a Wage-Based H-1B Lottery Delayed Until 12/31/2021
As we have previously reported, this final rule has been postponed in light of Biden’s efforts to postpone “midnight regulations” that signed by President Trump during the waning days of his administration. See our earlier posts: Final Rule on Creating Wage-Based Selection System for H-1B Cap-Subject Petition H-1B Lottery unlikely to be impacted by the…
Additional Time Added for Responding to USCIS notices
Update 1/24/2023 A new round of extension. The cutoff date is now March 23, 2023. Just like the last announcement, USCIS anticipates that this will be the final extension of these accommodations. The following requests/notices received between March 1, 2020 and March 23, 2023, will get additional 60 days to respond. Appeals/motions get up to…
DOL Accepts Request to Re-Issue Wage Determination until February 8, 2021
Employers may now request reissuance of Prevailing Wage Determination PWD, issued from October 8, 2020 through December 4, 2020, which reflected a much higher wage based on the wage methodology used pursuant to an interim final rule which is no longer in effect. The deadline to request reissuance is February 8, 2021. The request must…
Time to Prepare for H-1B Lottery Registration
As we get closer to the H-1B lottery selection date (at the end of March 2021), we urge employers to prepare early for H-1B registration and re-calibrate expectations moving forward especially in light of new rules designed to hinder the H-1B visa program. 2 New Rules: There are two Final Rules published during the waning…