Anyone planning to begin PERM processing should move up their planned start date as the result of the DOL’s change in prevailing wage processing. Through the end of last year, the DOL required employers to obtain all prevailing wage findings through local state job service agencies. That changed as of the first of the year. The DOL now requires all prevailing wage requests to be submitted to the DOL national office in Washington, DC.

We are not aware of any prevailing wage requests (PWR) filed though the new system that have resulted in prevailing wage determinations (PWD) as of five weeks into the new program. There are reports of cases filed in the first week in January having been returned due to perceived errors in the original PWR submission. These “errors” often include such things as not putting “N/A” in space for a sub-question, when the answer to the main question was “no.”

The DOL has indicated that users should expect a 60 day turn around for receiving PWDs. While this is a wholly unacceptable delay, it is consistent with the DOL’s overt hostility to the PERM process and their unceasing attempts to sabotage it.

Since a PWD is an essential first step in the PERM process, it is important for those intending to file PERM applications to begin the process as early as possible. Prospective filers should build in a 60 day delay at the start of the process for this additional prevailing wage processing.

Please also understand that 60 days is not a upper limit. It is entirely possible that an employer might submit a perfectly valid PRW, only to have it rejected after 45 days on totally spurious grounds, and then have to re-file and wait another 60 days for a PWD.