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LIAISON NOTES – AILA MEETS WITH DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
A recent meeting between liaisons for the Department of Labor and the American Immigration Lawyers Association provided updated information about numerous areas of concern to all of those involved in business related immigration issues.  
One item of interest to many is the state of the regulations that will allow for the conversion of a traditional labor certification to a reduction in recruitment case.  They have been completed and sent to the Assistant Secretary of Labor of signature.  After it is signed, it will be sent to the Office of Management and Budget before publication in the Federal Register.  This means publication in the Federal Register is less than four months away.  However, the Department of Labor does not think the regulation can be classified as an interim regulation (making it immediately effective), so it will be published as a proposed regulation, meaning the DOL will review the regulation after receiving public comments. 
The DOL is now projecting an April 1, 2001 start date for the new PERM program, which will replace the current labor certification system.  Regulations are currently being written, and the Department may also be able to begin the program sooner as a pilot.  The DOL also mentioned the impact this program would have on state employment security agencies (SESAs).  Because they would no longer be supervising the process of advertising and recruitment, many SESA employees will be under utilized.  The DOL suggested absorbing these state employees for use in those cases in which the DOL conducts an audit of an employer’s attestations about recruitment efforts. 
According to the DOL, the LCA faxback system in Philadelphia is turning applications around in one day, and in San Francisco in one to two days.  AILA responded that members continue to report problems with the system, including some faxes that are not returned for one to two weeks, and some that are never returned.  AILA will provide the DOL with reports of LCA processing problems. 
The DOL reported that it has completed its work on regulations for the 1998 H-1B act and has briefed the Office of Management and Budget on them, although the regulations have not yet been formally submitted to the OMB for publication in the Federal Register.  When these regulations are finalized, a new LCA form will be used. 
The DOL told AILA that it has developed a standardized form for prevailing wage requests, but will not release it for use until the PERM program becomes effective.