January 25, 2005

New DOL Locations

The Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) announced that it has moved its foreign labor certification field staff in the Atlanta and Chicago Regional Offices to the new Atlanta and Chicago National Processing Centers. These two National Processing Centers have the responsibility for processing Applications for Alien Employment Certification (ETA Form 750) for permanent employment, and H-2A, and H-2B applications previously processed by ETA's Atlanta and Chicago Regional Offices on an interim basis.

These centers, which will be fully staffed to begin the PERM work by March 28, 2005, will favorably impact the ability of the Department of Labor to process the permanent employment cases. Cases filed under PERM will be processed more speedily and will yield a large reduction in the average time needed to process labor certification applications. The DOL anticipates an application that is received, and not selected for audit, will have a final decision adjudicated within 45 to 60 days. We have been informed that Reduction in Recruitment cases are not at this time, at least, being given higher priority than non-RIR cases. The attorney of record will be notified of the transfer of any pending case from the Backlog Reduction Center.

The Atlanta Processing Center is located at: U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration, Foreign Labor Certification National Processing Center, Harris Tower, 233 Peachtree Street, Suite 410, Atlanta, Georgia 30303, Phone: (404) 893-0101, Fax: (404) 893-4642.

The Chicago Processing Center Address: U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration, Foreign Labor Certification National Processing Center, 844 North Rush Street, 12th Floor, Chicago, Illinois 60611, Phone: (312) 886-8000, Fax: (312) 886-1688.