June 30, 2006

Update on PERM

At the American Immigration Lawyers Association conference in San Antonio last week, top Department of Labor ("DOL") officials provided updates on the current state of the PERM labor certification process. The DOL is confident that, while it is still working on overcoming some issues with the system, the process is improving and providing a higher level of service and quicker processing times than the pre-PERM system. At the time of the conference, DOL officials indicated that the PERM processing center in Chicago has adjudicated 91% of its pending cases (52,000) cases with only 9% currently in the pipeline; and the Atlanta processing center has adjudicated 87% (56,000) cases. The Atlanta processing center has experienced some recent transitions and staff changes which has affected the processing of cases filed with this center. However, DOL expects that processing times will decrease with the recent addition of a new Certifying Officer, who successfully headed up the regional Atlanta DOL office prior to the implementation of PERM.

Greenberg Traurig will provide further updates on PERM as they become available.