Audits

PERM audits typically involve questions from the USDOL regarding the PERM filing.

PERM Audit and Related Questions

Question details

1) I recently submitted a PERM with company A which is wholly owned by a parent company B. Company B will soon absorb company A which will cease to exist as an independent company and will just become a new department within company B. How will my PERM be affected?
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2) If my PERM is audited and I don't want to go through the audit, will it be a good idea to change employers and submit a new PERM from scratch? What are the odds of being selected for an audit twice in a row?

It IS possible for your green card to remain unaffected even after the corporate change over.

Audit and Supervised Recruitment Tiers for PERM Applicatons

The Atlanta NPC Team will implement the following plan to induct applications filed into Audit Review and tag cases for possible Supervised Recruitment. This version of the plan has identified 8 criterions that specify types of cases that will be targeted for Audit Review and tagged for possible Supervised Recruitment.

Debarment for not responding to PERM audit

At the October 28, 2010, stakeholder meeting with the U.S. Department of Labor, DOL discussed their increased staffing capability and a corresponding increased scrutiny of cases where the employer fails to respond to an Audit Notification letter or submits an incomplete response to such a letter. Where DOL identifies a substantial failure by the employer to provide required documentation in response to an Audit Notification letter, DOL indicated that we can expect to see more debarment and/or revocation proceedings.

Audits about Telecommuting

Question details

Recently, DOL has begun to issue audits with the following language: “The foreign worker listed on the ETA 9089 resides in [residence location], section H of the 9089 provides [work location] as the worksite. Has DOL explained how the foreign worker performs the job duties of the job opportunity given the distance between [residence location] and [work location].Is the employee permitted and/or expected to perform the duties of the job opportunity listed on ETA 9089 from his residence and/or his place of choosing?” In many cases, the two locations are quite close and are clearly within a normal commuting distance (e.g. Atlanta and Marietta,
Georgia – distance approximately 20 miles; Palisades Park and Parsippany, New Jersey – distance approximately 30 miles). In one case, the work and residence locations were less than two miles apart. Has DOL considered conducting an initial review of the distance between the residence location and work location before issuing the audit?

DOL indicates that this kind of question on an audit where the work location and residence location are close together is likely a training issue. DOL does, however, believe that it is appropriate to inquire about this kind of issue where it is unclear why the residential address and the work address are far apart from one another, and does issue audits on that basis where appropriate.

PERM Audit & H1 extension beyond 6 yrs

Question details

My employer applied PERM (in 6th year) in October 2011 EB-2 Category and it picked for random audit in Jan 2012, employer asked me to send signed ETA form to respond to Audit question with in 2 weeks. They said its random computer audit and has to respond with paper documents. I am already in 6th yr and my H-1 get expired by May 22, 2012 is it possible to go for H-1 extension beyond 6th year while PERM is still in Audit status.

You will be eligible for H-1 extension beginning October 2012, even if PERM is pending audit or not.

PERM Audit and H-1 Expired

Question details

What happens if your H-1 expires before the PERM audit is cleared by DOL. Are we supposed to leave country. I have 20 months of H-1 life left to reach 6 years and my LABOR is in AUDIT status I am just wondering if I get an extension or will I be checked out of USA.

While a PERM audit or even an appeal against a denial after the audit is pending, you would still be entitled to H-1 extensions beyond six years.

Guestbook Entry for Samik Banerjee, United States

Name
Samik Banerjee
Country
United States
State
NJ
Comment

Hi: I would like to thank Mr. Rajiv Khanna for giving me and my employer some guidance on my case. The conference call with him was well worth the time and the money - his staff was very professional in setting it up and during the call he was very helpful and was not at all rushed. What I liked was even though we ran onto the next appointment's time he asked us to jump back in the call after sometime to make sure all our queries were answered. Thank You Again.  

Mandamus against PERM delays

Question details

DOL seems to have stopped progressing on the Audit cases. Can litigation alleviate this problem and force them to atleast respond?

All things considered, in my view, a Mandamus is possible. But the chances of success are remote at least in DC circuit. Typically, in delay cases, courts do not interfere with the executive branch of the govt. At the very least, lawsuits draw attention to difficult issues. I think a petition to the govt. should be the first step. May be the worthy President can help. Although, speedy processing in this environment is certainly not a politically popular issue, but we have all followed the laws and the promise of the laws.