Atour recent webinar, MU attorneys discussed the new DOL wage rule and how itcould greatly raise prevailing wages for H-1B petitions and EB-2 and EB-3 greencards. Moreon this topic here. Wewant to give our clients and friends two updates:
1. Lawsuit. MU along with some clients and the US Chamberof Commerce have been working on a lawsuit against both the DOL and theUSCIS. USChamber of Commerce press release. The lawsuit seeks to overturn both the newDOL wage computation used in their OES wage survey, and the three harsh changesto the H-1B definition. The lawsuit wasfiled last week and there is a hearing on the case set for November 23. If successful, the DOL and USCIS regulationscould be nullified.
2. Alternative Wage Surveys. The new DOL rule only raises the OES survey,which is the default survey used in H-1B cases, and in PWDs, which are used inEB-2 and EB-3 green card petitions. Thelaw still allows “alternative surveys.” An alternative survey is any published or private survey that meetscommon statistical metrics, is recent, is geographically relevant, and coversthe position in question.