DOL Update: DOL revising PERM requirements

On September 15, the DOL submitted an notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to update the requirements for employers seeking to sponsor foreign workers for green cards. The proposal would overhaul the permanent labor certification process (PERM), which requires employers seeking to sponsor foreign workers to demonstrate there aren’t any qualified U.S. workers available for the position and that sponsored foreign employees would receive market-based wages. The Trump administration has been focused on how employers use the PERM process as part of what it says is its agenda to protect American workers, with the DOJ and the DOL announcing recent PERM enforcement actions against tech companies. 

In the current regulatory agenda, the DOL describes the reason for the NPRM as follows: 

The Department will seek to modernize the standards and procedures by which the Department receives and reviews employers’ applications for permanent labor certification by improving the minimum standards for recruiting qualified U.S. workers, strengthening safeguards for U.S. Workers impacted by layoffs, and enhancing employer compliance with program requirements related to non-discriminatory recruitment and hiring practices, and record retention requirements. The rulemaking will result in a labor certification process that better reflects current labor market dynamics and ensures employers experiencing true shortages of high-skilled labor are permitted access to the permanent employment-based immigration process.