Registered Nurses and PhysicalTherapists are exempt from the Department of Labor PERM Application processbecause they are Schedule A occupations. This is a great relief because it saves considerable time. Other healthcare occupations, notably Occupational Therapist and SpeechLanguage Pathologists,must still avail themselves of the PERM process.
PERM Applications usually takeseveral months to prepare because before a PERM Application can be filed, theemployer must test the labor market with a variety of advertisements that maybe placed in newspapers, on the internet, and via hard copy Noticeposting.
After the labor market test iscomplete, the PERM Application is electronically filed with the Department ofLabor. The electronic filing sets theApplication’s “priority date”. The DOLelectronically reviews the Application. The DOL presently is reviewing PERM Applications that have December2014 prioritydates.
A percentage of PERM Applicationsare selected for auditing. The auditselection process is generally random, although some factors can increase anApplications chance of being selected. The biggest downside of the Audit is the processing time.
The DOL is presently reviewing PERMApplications with a priority date of March 2014, which is about one and a halfyears from the date of the initial filing of the PERM Application. If one assumes about 6 months for thepre-filing labor market test, then the total processing time for the PERM processis almost two years.
Fortunately the DOL appears to beaware of the backlogs. At a recent meeting between AILA and the Office ofForeign Labor Certification, the OFLC said that it expects to see a“considerable reduction” in the audit processing queue.