DOCUMENTS LISTS

PERM DOCUMENTS

  1. A company brochure if any, or the website;
  2. Employer’s personnel structure, its hierarchy with regard to the occupation, if available;
  3. Employee’s passport,resume;
  4. Copy of all Diplomas/Professional licenses/Degrees/Educational Certificates and transcripts earned by Employee.
  5. Copy of Reference Letters from previous employers on their letterhead indicating designation, period of employment and detailed job duties. Please cover at least three years prior to joining current employment. The letter must be signed by someone who would know the particulars of Employee such as a Project Manager, HR Manager, President, Managing Director, etc.

U.S. Employer should:

  • A) Prevailing Wage

In the process of Program Electronic Review Management ,Employer must now pay 100% of the prevailing wage.Prevailing wages are established by regulatory agencies for each trade and occupation employed in the performance of public work, as well as by State Departments of Labor or their equivalents.

When applying for PERM, the U.S. Department of Labor required American employers to commit to paying migrant workers who would become permanent residents of the United States no less than the “prevailing Wage”. There are two aspects of this policy: First, the U.S. government is trying to prevent American employers from employing cheap non-American workers ,thereby reducing the employment opportunities of American workers. Second, the U.S. government protects the rights and interests of foreign workers and guarantees their wages.

U.S. employers must receive the results of Prevailing Wage Determination before submitting PERM applications. In practice, attorney suggests that employer should get Prevailing Wage Determination before they start advertising.

For prevailing wage purposes, DOL boils all jobs down into four levels: entry (Level 1), qualified (Level II), experienced (Level III), and fully competent (Level IV). The new two levels will be in the middle of the original two. The effect of this change is that salaries of EB-2 PERM may fall to the third level, which is slightly lower than the original salary level, while  salaries of EB-3 PERM may rise to the second level, which is slightly higher than the original salary level.

The level of Prevailing Wage for a specific position in a PERM application does not depend on the individual qualifications of a foreign worker, but on the qualifications, experience and job responsibilities of the position required by the American employer.

  • B) Recruitment activities

According to DOL regulations, recruitment activities must be concluded at least 30 days prior to filing, and must have begun no sooner than 180 days prior to filing.

  1. Compulsory recruitment: two-week newspaper advertisements (or some Sunday newspapers and periodicals) and a 30-day worksheet with the State Labor Office;The employer must place an advertisement in a newspaper of general circulation on two different Sundays. If the job offer requires experience and an advanced degree, the employer may place an advertisement in an appropriate national professional journal in lieu of one of the Sunday advertisements.
  2. Three other professional recruitment activities;
  3. Prevailing Wage must be obtained from Department of Labor (Ministry of Labor) wage agency. Employers must provide 100% of Prevailing Wage.
  4. The estimated processing time after submitting the application is 3-4 months.
  5. Online submission;
  6. When submitting an application for PERM (Program Electronic Review Management), there is no need to submit all the supporting documents, whether online or using a paper version.
  7. Employers must retain all supporting documents for five years from the date of submission.
  8. DOL (Department of Labor) Department of Labor will randomly review a certain proportion of cases, while other cases will be reviewed according to the information provided in the application;

If the job being offered is a professional occupation, as is the case for all EB-2 positions and for most EB-3 positions that require a degree, then the employer must post a job advertisement in at least three of the following forums during recruitment. The employer is allowed to complete one of the three activities within the 30 days prior to filing.

  • Employer’s website
  • Trade or professional organizations
  • Private employment firms
  • Job fairs
  • Job search website other than the employer’s
  • On-campus recruiting (usually for positions requiring no experience)
  • A notice of the job opening at a campus placement office, if the job requires a degree but no experience
  • An employee referral program, if such a program includes identifiable incentives
  • Local and ethnic newspapers, to the extent that they are appropriate for the job opportunity (Note that these may be the same media in which the mandatory Sunday advertisements appear.)
  • Radio and television advertisements

The Content of Job Ads

  • Employer’s name and contact information
  • The way potential candidates submit their job applications;
  • Physical address of the site of employment, and address where applicants should send resumes
  • Description of the job with sufficient detail (i.e. the same description used in the prevailing wage determination)

PERM labor certification is an extremely complicated and time-sensitive procedure. A PERM application may be selected for an audit or denied. 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.