On July 21, 2004, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published a rule authorizing the transfer of labor certification applications from the various State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) and DOL Regional Offices to centralized processing center(s).  The rule amends the existing labor certification regulations to give the National Certifying Officer (Chief, Division of Foreign Labor Certification) the discretion to direct State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) and DOL Regional Offices to transfer pending labor certification cases to centralized processing centers.  While not specifically stated in the published rule, DOL previously announced that two backlog reduction centers will be established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Dallas, Texas.  The rule will take effect 30 days after publication (August 20, 2004).

Under the current processing system, employers file applications for labor certification with the appropriate SWA.  The SWA then assigns a priority date to the application, determines the prevailing wage, and does initial review and assessment on the application.  Following the SWA's review, cases are transferred to the Regional DOL office for final review and adjudication.  For transferred cases, the backlog reduction centers will eliminate this two-stage review process, and will consolidate the functions currently performed separately by the SWAs and DOL Regional Offices.

It is unclear at this time how cases will be selected for transfer to the processing centers.  The rule states that the National Certifying Officer will issue a directive stating how pending applications are to be identified for centralized processing.  The rule indicates that the extent of centralized processing and the speed with which the backlog will be reduced may vary based on program priorities, so the immediate impact of centralized processing is unclear at this time.  In the past, DOL has followed a policy of "first in, first out" when reviewing labor certification applications, so it is expected that cases will be pulled from the front of the queues at SWAs and DOL offices.

As of April 2003, DOL had a backlog of over 300,000 labor certification applications awaiting review at the SWAs and DOL regional offices.  DOL attributes the bulk of this backlog to the 236,000 cases that were filed between December 2000 and April 30, 2001, due to legislation that authorized an extension of a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act until April 30, 2001.  Prior to this extension, DOL received approximately 100,000 labor certification applications each year.

It is important to note that this rule does not affect the proposed PERM regulations changing the labor certification process, which are expected to be finalized later this year.  Instead, the rule is focused on reducing the backlog of cases filed under the existing regulations.

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