Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) (former INS) officials have indicated to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) that they are reviewing a pilot program to "pre-certify" certain employers to establish their ability to pay the prevailing wage for I-140 immigrant visa petitions, and also for "pre-certification" of certain clusters of positions within an employer as "specialty occupations" for H-1B purposes. BCIS may commence this program as early as September 2003.

The BCIS has indicated that the goal of the program is to streamline "clearly approvable" petitions, and eliminate unnecessary duplication of extensive documentation for companies which file multiple petitions.

Initially, the program would be launched as a pilot program. Companies would need to meet the stated threshold requirements for eligibility for participation. It appears that some of the "threshold requirements" would focus on an entity's length of time in operation, number of petitions filed per year, and amount of capitalization.  BCIS has suggested particularly high thresholds in these regards (such as having filed at least 100 petitions per year), and has stated that these thresholds may be lowered after the pilot.  AILA members have participated in "focus groups" to discuss this pilot program, and have pointed out a number of pitfalls to this approach.

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