Finnan, Fleischut & Associates

The Department of Labor (DOL) has engaged in an ongoing effort to clarify many issues that have arisen since the inception of its PERM program on March 28, 2005. 

PERM is the first and most common step to secure employment-based permanent residency, consisting of a revised labor certification process that replaced the traditional/non-waiver and Reduction in Recruitment (RIR) approaches. 

DOL’s latest clarification announced this week includes a revised response to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).  In particular, DOL addresses the issue of multiple applications for the same alien beneficiary, for the same job opportunity.  DOL states in that situation, only one PERM application may be in process at any given time.  Where an employer already has multiple PERM applications on file for the same alien beneficiary, same job opportunity, then by January 19, 2006, the employer is expected to withdraw the applications it does not want processed, or DOL will consider the last-filed application to be the one intended for processing.  DOL will deny the others.  A similar practice will be applied at the Backlog Elimination Centers (BECs), for multiple applications under the pre-PERM system, same employer, a