The PERM Game

In order to do a Labor Certification, commonly known by its acronym, PERM, the US employer has to "test" the labor market to prove that no Americans are available to do the job. They do this by advertising in various places. The Department of Labor prescribes to us which particular places we can advertise. And that's where this game starts. Its a stilted process which has no resemblance to real life. We have to advertise in the Sunday edition of a newspaper. While this might keep the newspaper industry in the US afloat, in real life especially for jobs like "software engineer"--nobody reads print newspapers anymore. Then we have to advertise in the State Workforce Agency's web site. I bet you did not know that each state has a job search website run by the workforce agency. I did a google search on "Engineering jobs in Texas" and the workforce agency's website did not come up in the first two pages.

Yet when employers use a private Recruitment firm to do the "test" of labor market, they can get denied unless they have adequate documents to delineate exactly how they conducted recruitment. In re Unica Corporation, Balca 2010-PER-00006

So my advise to Employers is play the game by the DOL rules. In this game, the referee (DOL) is unforgiving, so avoid fouls by keeping meticulous records of all advertisement and recruitment report before starting to play the PERM game. If you are using any private recruitment agency, have a signed statement from them as to what they did, and keep it in the file. Follow the letter of the law, not its intent. Is this contrary to American jurisprudence? You bet.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee