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Reddy & Neumann, P.C. invites you to join our Webinar: “PERM Labor Certification – Navigating the Crucial First Step of the Green Card Process” on Wednesday, February 12th, 2020 from 1:00pm to 2:00pm CST. Sign up here today! 

PERM Labor Certification is often the first of three steps to the employment based green card process. Properly navigating this first step with your immigration attorney is crucial to a successful green card process for your employees.

For employers seeking to sponsor an employee for permanent residence in the United States, this webinar will provide insight into the maze of the PERM Labor Certification process. Specifically, this webinar will include:

• The importance of properly drafting the PERM job description
• Best practices for setting employer minimum education, experience, and special experience/skill requirements for the sponsored position
• How to properly document employee qualifications
• An overview of PERM recruitment requirements
• A discussion on Department of Labor PERM Audit Triggers
• A look at DOL processing times and what that means for certain employees on temporary work visas
• Also included: Difference between the EB-2 and EB-3 preference category and what that means for your employee, and Ability to Pay analysis

Speakers:
Krystal Alanis:  Partner & PERM Practice Manager
Amanda Cardwell: Associate Attorney
Camille Joson: Associate Attorney

This Webinar is made available by Reddy & Neumann, P.C. for educational purposes only. Information provided in this Webinar should not be construed as legal advice for your specific situation nor does it constitute an engagement with Krystal Alanis, Amanda Cardwell, Camille Joson, or Reddy & Neumann, P.C. or establish an attorney-client relationship. For specific advice on your situation, please contact a licensed attorney.

When an employer files a PERM Labor Application, it must demonstrate that the beneficiary fully qualifies for the sponsored position.

Generally if experience is required, a beneficiary cannot use the experience gained with the sponsoring employer to qualify for the sponsored position. But, as with most things, there are exceptions to this rule:  Continue reading

One of the prerequisites to filing a PERM Labor Certification is to have a prevailing wage determination issued by the Department of Labor’s National Prevailing Wage Center (NPWC). The prevailing wage is the average wage paid to similarly employed  workers in a specific occupation in the area of intended employment. Among other things, the wage rate is based on the position title, the position description and minimum requirements, and the area of intended employment.

Upon submission of a prevailing wage application, we provide a Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) for the PERM position – the best match wins! The NPWC takes our “suggestion” into consideration, but they ultimately decide what classification the position falls under. Issues can arise if an improper classification is selected by the NPWC. Not only do job details differ across classifications, but wage amounts can differ considerably as well.

This is especially a problem where the NPWC’s selected classification has a higher corresponding wage than what is normal for the PERM position. The good news is, the NPWC allows employers to request a redetermination of prevailing wage where the underlying determination is incorrect. We recently had this issue arise and succeeded in our redetermination request on behalf of the employer. Continue reading