Several regional offices of the Division of Foreign Labor Certification of the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) have had a substantial backlog of Reduction in Recruitment (RIR) cases, especially those cases that involve information technology jobs.  Therefore, the head of the Division of Foreign Labor Certification issued a memorandum regarding the need and procedure for reducing this backlog of cases.

The memorandum outlines the procedures to guide Regional Certifying Officers as they review and process RIR requests.  The Initial Review Provision stipulates “all RIR applications must be reviewed based on criteria for completeness of the application, demonstration of a pattern of recruitment and compliance with applicable regulations.”  Certifying Officers have the discretion to deny an RIR request at this stage of the review process.

Applications that do not meet the completeness and/or compliance regulations may be issued a Notice of Finding (NOF).  Those applications that do meet the requirements, and the employment position requires a Bachelor’s Degree and three or more years of experience or requiring a Master’s Degree and six months of experience, will be certified and not subject to the retest provisions.  Applications that meet the requirements, but do not require the degree and experience criteria will be analyzed to determine if further recruitment is unnecessary.

The Retest Provision allows the certifying officer to send a letter to the employer and/or attorney of record which offers several options, which include completely withdrawing the application, withdrawing the RIR request and remand the case to the State Workforce Agency (SWA) or conducting a one-day ‘retest’ of the labor market under the direction of the certifying officer.

In cases where additional recruitment is required to support an RIR application, the ‘Look Back’ Provision allows employers to utilize advertisements that it placed within the past six months.  Employers who utilize this option will be required to provide a detailed recruitment report.

Employers who use the ‘retest’ option will be allowed to modify their applications, as long as these modifications do not change the occupational classification of the employment opportunity at the time the case was originally filed.  Any adjustments must meet Department of Labor requirements.