DOL

OFLC appreciates the challenges the regulated community has experienced as a result of the lapse in appropriations, which resulted in the cessation of the operation of OFLC's electronic systems, and further resulted in a backlog of documents submitted to OFLC during that period by mail, hand-delivery, or email. As a result of the government shutdown, OFLC is implementing the following temporary changes to its standard procedures related to document timeliness:

On July 8, 2013, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) approved OFLC's revised retention schedule following a 30-day period of public notice and review. As part of its review and approval process, NARA determined employer applications for labor certification and supporting documentation, whether retained in paper and electronic form, are temporary records and subject to destruction in accordance with an approved disposition schedule.

As a result of the unique perishable nature of agricultural commodities in the H-2A program, OFLC will temporarily (for a period not to exceed 30 days) implement the following mailing procedure:

On August 30, 2013, the Department of Labor (Department) will publish in the Federal Register a final rule to delay indefinitely the effective date of the Wage Methodology for the Temporary Non-Agricultural Employment H-2B Program final rule (2011 Wage Rule), which was published on January 19, 2011, 76 FR 3452.

The Department has published a Notice in the Federal Register announcing a 60-day comment period on its proposed changes to the form ETA-9033, Attestation by Employers Using Alien Crewmembers for Longshore Activities in U.S. Ports and ETA-9033A, Attestation by Employers Using Alien Crewmembers for Longshore Activities in the State of Alaska. To read the Notice, please click here.

• State department's cable clarifies how reciprocity fees are affected when consular officers collect anti-fraud fees and border security fees.
• Please check attached file.

The Office of Foreign Labor Certification has posted updated program factsheets containing the Quarter 3 FY 2013 selected statistics for the Permanent Labor Certification Program,

Prevailing Wage Determination Program,

Currently, the LCR displays all certified H-1B1 and E-3 Labor Condition Applications (LCA) and Permanent labor certifications, dating back to April 15, 2009. However, the Department is experiencing technical difficulties with the display of approved H-1B LCAs. In addition, due to the historical paper-based filings of H-2A and H-2B applications, these labor certification documents must be manually redacted and uploaded to the LCR and, therefore, only a limited number of records covering Fiscal Year 2013 are currently available.

A revised version of the ETA Form 9141 will be implemented in the iCERT Portal on June 18. The form changes were pursued through the Paperwork Reduction Act process and have been reviewed and approved by the Office of Management and Budget. Minor changes were made to clarify information needed for more efficient application processing. A fillable copy of the form is available here.