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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR REVEALS NEW PLANS FOR LABOR CERTIFICATION PROCESS
At the recent spring conference of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Chief of the Foreign Labor Certification Division of the Department of Labor, Jim Norris, announced several changes that would be made to the labor certification process that could dramatically speed up green card processing times. 

Immigration attorneys have been waiting for the new process, which is known as PERM, to take effect. According to statements made at the conference, it should go into effect on April 1, 2001. Under this system, an employer would be able to conduct recruitment without Labor Department supervision, and would merely need to attest on the application that good faith recruiting efforts were undertaken. Employers should, of course, maintain records of these efforts in the event of a Labor Department audit. According to Norris, under the PERM system it will be possible to fax applications to the Department of Labor, and approval could take as little as one day. 

Until the PERM program goes into effect, the Department plans to issue new regulations that will allow traditional labor certifications that have already been filed to be processed as reduction in recruitment cases. Sources indicated that these regulations have been drafted, and should be published sometime in June of this year. 

People in the Department also revealed that it will soon release new guidelines on the prevailing wage. Many employers and attorneys try to avoid using official Occupational Employment Statistics released by the Department of Labor. This is because there are only two wage levels recognized in the salary information - entry level and experienced - that does not reflect real wages. However, the Department of Labor has historically rejected private wage surveys. According to statements made at the AILA conference, the new guidelines will allow the Department to be more lenient in accepting private wage surveys.