DOL prepares changes to employee green-card recruitment rules

Why PERM matters to an employer’s green-card plan

PERM is a Department of Labor process used in many employer-sponsored green-card cases. Before obtaining labor certification, the employer must test the U.S. labor market for the permanent job and meet the applicable recruitment requirements. DOL’s role includes assessing whether qualified U.S. workers are available and whether the proposed employment would adversely affect similarly employed U.S. workers.

This is why a change to PERM matters to HR and recruiting: it can affect the work that must be completed before an employee’s case can move to a later stage. Job advertisements, applicant review and recruitment records are part of that process; they are not simply ordinary hiring paperwork.

What happened on October 23

DOL sent its draft to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, or OIRA. This office is part of the White House budget office and reviews significant draft regulations before publication. It is reviewing government policy—not deciding an employer’s or employee’s PERM application.

OIRA’s public record says that review ended on October 23. The record calls the document a proposed rule and gives the result as “consistent with change.” It does not disclose the revised wording or identify which changes were made during the review.

In everyday terms, the draft has completed an internal government review step. That is different from publishing the proposal for employers to read, and different again from adopting a final rule that takes effect on a stated date. The reference number, RIN 1205-AC29, is simply a tracking number for this rulemaking.

What DOL has said it wants to change

DOL’s regulatory agenda identifies four areas it wants to address. The agenda describes its goals, rather than the final requirements employers will have to meet.

What employers cannot tell from this update

The completion record and agenda do not provide a new advertising checklist, a replacement recruitment timetable or instructions for cases already in progress. They also do not establish that any particular employer will need to repeat completed recruitment.

For example, an HR team may have an employee whose recruitment has started and another whose job description is still being prepared. Those are different points in the process. The October review record does not say how a future change would apply to either case. Any transition instructions would need to come from the published rulemaking documents.

It is therefore too early to describe existing cases as automatically protected from future changes—or automatically required to restart. Neither conclusion is supplied by this announcement.

What governs a case today

The current recruitment provisions remain in 20 CFR 656.17. They include requirements for reviewing applicants and documenting recruitment results, as well as specific provisions concerning qualifying layoffs. Completion of OIRA review does not replace that regulation.

This update is about a government proposal, not a finding that an employee has lost work authorization, that an employer’s pending case has been denied or that a new filing deadline has started. Those are separate questions that cannot be answered by the October 23 entry.

What would make the next update meaningful

A published proposal would provide wording that employers and employees can inspect, together with instructions for public comments. In the usual rulemaking process, the agency considers those comments before publishing a final rule. The final document would identify its effective date and any provisions governing the changeover.

The details that matter for an employer are concrete: which recruitment steps would change, which cases would be covered, what records would be required and when a new requirement would apply. A review-completion date cannot supply those answers on its own.