PERM processing update: what DOL’s 300-day figure covers

The latest figures in plain English

PERM is the Department of Labor process used for many employer-sponsored green cards. The employer completes the required recruitment and files a labor-certification application. DOL then reviews that application; its processing dashboard reports the time associated with that review.

The October 31 snapshot gives separate figures for three reporting windows. These are calendar days, rather than business days. The reporting period describes the window used for the figure; it does not mean DOL finishes an application within 30, 90 or 180 days.

Which stage of the employee’s case is being measured?

An HR case tracker may show a green-card process as open long before a PERM application is filed. Recruitment and other preparation happen before the application reaches DOL. A review-time figure for the filed application therefore cannot describe all the time the employee has already spent in the process.

The stages after labor certification are separate as well. Where labor certification is required, the employment-based process also involves an immigrant petition with USCIS. Visa availability and the employee’s final permanent-residence process follow their own requirements. A DOL certification is an intermediate milestone in that sequence.

The prevailing-wage table uses a different snapshot

The same dashboard displays prevailing-wage determination data dated September 30, 2026. That table and the October 31 PERM table report different steps and different reporting dates.

An employee whose case is awaiting a prevailing-wage determination is not yet in the same stage as an employee with a filed PERM application awaiting analyst review. Combining the two dashboard headings into one processing estimate would obscure that distinction.

What the dashboard does not resolve

DOL states that it is not presenting averages for audit and supervised-recruitment queues because those cases account for a small share of the total PERM workload. A missing figure in those queues does not establish a zero-day wait.

The three analyst-review figures are aggregate measures, rather than a decision date for a particular employee. They also use different reporting windows, so comparing them as though they were three consecutive monthly results would give a misleading picture of the data.

Where to find subsequent updates

The FLAG page sets out DOL’s update schedule and carries the reporting date beside each program. The source links below also explain the labor-certification filing requirements and the separate employment-based immigrant-visa stages.