H1B Visa Lawyer Blog
As of September 9, 2011 –
Of the approximately 3,500 H-2B wage redeterminations to be completed by the end of September, DOL has completed approximately 2,700. DOL expects to be current on H-2B redeterminations by the week of Sept 18, 2011.
After H-2B redeterminations are current, a few employees will continue to work on “straggler” H-2B cases and all others who were working on redeterminations will be reassigned to work on new H-2B prevailing wage requests. DOL expects H-2B prevailing wage determinations to be current (regulatory 30 days) by mid-October.
After H-2Bs are current, DOL will shift resources to focus on PERM prevailing wage requests. DOL commits to have PERM prevailing wage requests current (processed within 60 days of filing) by November 1.
DOL commits to have H-1B prevailing wage determinations current by the second week of November.
The aforementioned dates were said to be the “worse case scenario,” absent something catastrophic (e,g. hurricane) or other major event/change.
DOL agreed that stakeholders would benefit from updates on progress made toward these processing targets, and would consider publishing an update on the status of prevailing wages at the end of September on the OFLC website.
DOL repeated that it will not waive any of the regulatory requirements and did not provide any additional guidance on alternative avenues for PERM cases that are ripe for filing but for the lack of a prevailing wage determination.
As of August 25, 2011 –
The Department of Labor (DOL) Liaison has received reports from members that PERM prevailing wage determinations are beginning to be received for requests submitted in early June 2011. Additionally, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) has been in discussions with other stakeholders on possible courses of action, including individual mandamus actions, if DOL does not resume issuing prevailing wage determinations promptly.
Original Update: The OFLC National Prevailing Wage Center is experiencing delays in processing prevailing wage determinations as it is currently working to reissue certain determinations to comply with a court order issued June 15, 2011 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was published in the Federal Register on June 28, 2011, and a Final Rule was published on August 1. All Center resources are currently being utilized to comply with this court order. The processing of Prevailing Wage Determinations, redeterminations, and Center Director Reviews has been temporarily suspended. Processing will resume as soon as full compliance with the court order has been completed by OFLC.
We will continue to post new information as soon as it becomes available.
Source: AILA Doc. No. 11072571