DOL Agrees to Reopen Certain Labor Certification Cases Closed by the BECs
A letter from DOL Asst. Secretary Emily Stover DeRocco, issued in response to correspondence from the AILF Legal Action Center with respect to labor certification applications closed by the Backlog Elimination Centers for failure to respond to 45-day letters, indicates that the Labor Dept. will re-open those cases in which the employer or the attorney notified the Certifying Officer that the 45-day letter had not been received. The letter allows 30 days from receipt of the case closure letter to notify the CO.
Over the past year, AILA's DOL Liaison Committee had raised the issue of improperly closed BEC cases numerous times. However, DOL had been unable to decide on a policy regarding cases closed because the employer or attorney never received the 45-day letter, and had been largely unable to reopen other cases that had been closed even though the attorney or employer was able to prove that a response indicating that the case should be continued had been sent. Therefore, the AILF Legal Action Center sent a "demand letter" to DOL, requesting that the problem be resolved. DOL responded on June 1, 2006.
The letter from DOL leaves open many issues, including cases that were closed even though a response had been sent, cases closed more than 30 days ago for which no notification to the certifying officer has yet been sent, handling of future cases, and the process for obtaining reopening and the DOL notifying the parties of reopenings. AILA's liaison and AILF's Legal Action Center are currently discussing these and other issues with DOL.