Welcome to Your Guide to PERM

I was honored to be involved in the latest edition of AILA’s Guide to PERM Labor Certification, and the 2023 revised edition is a resource I wanted to be sure you all knew was available! The publication carries forward a strong tradition of insightful pieces on key labor certification topics as well as practical how-to’s, and offers something for every practitioner, from a newly minted immigration attorney to immigration law luminaries.  Vitally, it comes on the heels of major changes wrought by the Department of Labor, including moving the e-filing of PERMs from iCert to FLAG and launching a new ETA 9089 form in an environment rife with technical glitches and unanswered questions of both form and substance.

The Guide is intended to serve a critical function of highlighting key labor certification rules, decisions, theories and policies, analyzing vexing issues of legal interpretation and practice and providing an analytical framework for achieving success in obtaining permanent employment certification.

Many of the articles in this edition have been published in previous editions, but the authors have gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure all are up-to-date and reflect the intricacies and flaws of the new form and the filing process.  At the same time, the Guide is forward-looking and contains articles on some of the pressing issues of today’s PERM practice.

As a practitioner, it’s hard to pick a “favorite” topic among those included in the guide, but if I had to choose a set of them, I think I’d lean toward those that offer more of the “How To’s” and act as  easy-to-use, step-by-step assistants for specific parts of the PERM puzzle.

For those of you wondering what’s really changed, well, the PERM regulatory framework, in effect since 2005, remains largely intact. Although BALCA decisions and policy updates have clarified issues over the years, PERM practice in general continues to be challenging.  As of this writing, DOL’s sudden decisions to transition to FLAG and implement a new form have yet to yield labor certification approvals and we are certain questions of law and compliance will persist for years to come.

It is then our hope that AILA’s Guide to PERM Labor Certification, 2023 revised edition, gives center stage to most salient issues in labor certification law, serves as an effective tool for managing PERM practices, and succeeds in illuminating the tensions between the rules, decisions and policy – all to prepare us for what comes next.

*****

AILA members, the new ETA-9089, Application for Alien Employment Certification, launched on  DOL’s FLAG system in June. Register now for a free roundtable on November 15 to take part in a discussion and Q&A session about what we have learned since its launch. This is a follow-up to the seminar, Navigating the Implementation of the New PERM Form ETA-9089 in FLAG, which is available as a free OnDemand recording to AILA members.