Step 1：An employer first agrees to sponsor an alien beneficiary for a PERM labor certification application.
(According to our experience, U.S. employers generally need H-1B visa holders to work at least 3-5 years before they agree to apply for PERM for foreign immigrant applicants.）
Step 2:The employer then retains an immigration attorney for the purpose of filing the application, and thereby establishes an attorney-client relationship.
(Please note that the employer should pay attorney fees to attorney directly)
Step 3: American employers complete information provided by our attorney.
I. PERM Application Form
II. The information about employer’s company.
III. Detailed description of the responsibilities of the position.
IV. Potential recruitment conditions,
V. Education and experience of foreign employees;
Step 4: The attorney communicates with both the employer and prospective alien employee, drafting appropriate job descriptions and determining the requirements for the position based on a collaborative discussion.
Step 5：The attorney obtains a prevailing wage determination from the National Prevailing Wage Center (NPWC).
Step 6：With assistance from the attorney, the petitioning employer arranges the recruitment schedule and advertises the job via proper internal and external media, in accordance with U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) regulations.
Step 7：The employer takes the pains to document all recruitment activities, which must be completed within a period of 30 to 180 days prior to submitting the application.
Step 8: Employers screen and review candidates;
Step 9: Employers are required to interview qualified candidates if necessary.
Step 10: Employers complete the evaluation of all applicants, summarize the recruitment process, and inform our attorneys of the employment and rejection situation, while providing detailed information on the reasons for rejection;
Step 11: According to the record of recruitment activities provided by employers, our attorney assisted employers to prepare a detailed recruitment report carefully, which employers need to sign.
Step 12：If a sufficient number of qualified U.S. workers is not found for the position, then the employer is eligible to submit a PERM application.
Step 13： The attorney prepares the online PERM application and provides a copy to the employer and the prospective alien employee for review before filing. After the employer and alien have reviewed the application, the attorney submits it.
Step 14：If DOL finds that the employer conducted the required recruitment
and found no qualified and available U.S. workers for the position, DOL will approve the employer’s application within 45 and 90 days of the filing date. In some cases, an employer’s application is approved after only a handful of days.
Step 15：If DOL finds the application suspicious or randomly selects it for extra review, the application will undergo an audit. After DOL notifies the employer of an audit, the employer must submit required documents within 30 days. If the employer fails to do so, DOL will not only deny the application for labor certification, but may also require future applications from the same employer to go through an additional layer of scrutiny in what is called supervised recruitment.
Step 16：If employers fail to submit the required documents within 30 days, the Department of Labor will not only reject the application, but may even require employers to conduct other recruitment activities under its supervision for up to two years.
Step 17：After reviewing the employer’s documents submitted for an audit, DOL may certify the labor certification petition, deny the petition, or ask the employer to go through supervised recruitment.