PERM Labor Certification

• What is PERM?
• How does PERM work?
• What about serious retrogression of the EB-3 and EB-2 visa categories?
• Where can I find the full text of PERM?

What is PERM?

PERM is the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL's) program for permanent labor certification. These are some of the key points of PERM:

• The U.S. employer must pay at least 100% of the "prevailing wage," which is divided into four wage levels.
• PERM labor certifications are filed electronically (or by mail) directly with the DOL.
• DOL has a goal of making decisions on the electronically filed PERM applications at 45–60 days.

How does PERM work?

Under PERM, employers will obtain a Prevailing Wage Determination (PWD) from the applicable State Workforce Agency (SWA) and conduct recruitment for the open position. If no able, qualified, and willing U.S. workers, apply for the position, the employer will complete and submit (online or by mail) a detailed form about the job duties, minimum requirements, wages, recruitment efforts, recruitment results, and so on to one of two DOL PERM processing centers. The DOL processing centers will conduct a quick anti-fraud check (to make sure the employer exists and has employees) and if the application is not selected for audit based on unpublished factors or based on random quality control factors, the DOL will certify the application.

Procedurally, the application is essentially approved "automatically" as long as the application does not trigger the DOL computer to send out an audit request based on unpublished factors and is not randomly selected for a quality control audit. That is, "good" cases under PERM will normally be approved by default. 

What about serious retrogression of the EB-3 and EB-2 visa categories?

If you are from China, India, or the Philippines, the existing EB-3 retrogression could cause serious delays in your path to a green card. In addition, even the EB-2 category is expected to retrogress for at least China and India. If you are from one of these countries, you should also be aware that there are first-preference and second-preference categories that do not require a labor certification, such as Aliens of Extraordinary Ability (EB-1A), Outstanding Professors or Researchers (EB-1B), Multinational Executives or Managers (EB-1C), and National Interest Waiver (NIW). A petition successfully filed under one of these categories might allow you and your family to get your green cards potentially several years faster than waiting in the EB-3 line (and perhaps even a considerable period of time before other EB-2 cases). Not everyone qualifies for these other categories, though, so a careful review of your case is important. You can find more information about our free reviews for these types of cases on our Free Evaluations page.

Where can I find the full text of PERM?

You can download it from the DOL website in either plain text or pdf format (97 pages).