The Department of Labor is proposing to amend its regulations governing
the filing and processing of labor certification applications for
the permanent employment of aliens in the United States to implement
a new system for filing and processing such applications. The proposed
rule would also amend the regulations governing the employer's wage
obligation under the H-1B program. The new system would require
employers to conduct recruitment before filing their applications
directly with an ETA application processing center on application
forms designed for automated screening and processing. State Workforce
Agencies (SWA's) would provide prevailing wages determinations to
employers. Employers would be required to place a job order with
the SWA which would be processed the same as any other job order
placed by employers. SWA's would no longer be the intake point for
submission of applications and would not be involved in processing
the applications as they are now in the present system. The combination
of prefiling recruitment, automated processing of applications,
and elimination of the role of the SWA's in the processing of application
will yield a large reduction in the average time needed to process
labor certification applications and are expected to eliminate the
need to periodically institute special, resources intensive efforts
to reduce backlogs which have been a recurring problem.
The rule is published in the Federal Register today. Interested
persons are invited to submit written comments on the proposed rule
within 60 days from the date of publication in Federal Register.
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(05/06/2002)
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