Chicago Regional DOL Tracker

GC_DJ said:
If they lump together our applications (which has already cleared the state level) with all the pending state level appl., which they plan to transfer to NPC then we will be screwed big time. If they don not lump together then we will be fine. Any expert out there shed some light.
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NO
They are not gonna mix up SWA cases with Cases in DOL. Pending cases at every DOL (including Chicago) will be transferred to One of the BEC (Phily or Dallas) in first phase & they will be processed in two national queues (RIR & Non RIR) First In First Out. In second Phase all the SWA cases will be forwarded to BEC for similar process.

from Jan 2005, all new cases will be forwarded to National Processing Center & It will be a one step process (not two SWA & DOL).
 
All DOL cases will be forwarded to NPC's and SWA cases will be forwarded to BEC's
gp111 said:
NO
They are not gonna mix up SWA cases with Cases in DOL. Pending cases at every DOL (including Chicago) will be transferred to One of the BEC (Phily or Dallas) in first phase & they will be processed in two national queues (RIR & Non RIR) First In First Out. In second Phase all the SWA cases will be forwarded to BEC for similar process.

from Jan 2005, all new cases will be forwarded to National Processing Center & It will be a one step process (not two SWA & DOL).
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kpallekonda said:
All DOL cases will be forwarded to NPC's and SWA cases will be forwarded to BEC's
Click to expand...

Please check the Memo.. as per Annexure 1 all the regional backlogged cases will be forwarded to BEC & starting next year all new cases will be forwarded to NPC
 
>10/1/04: Large number of oldest cases will be transferred to the BEC from >San Francisco.
>Early October - End of October 2004: The oldest cases from other Regions >and States will be transferred to the BEC.
>January - March 2005: Rest of the backlog cases will be transferred to the >BEC (Philadelphia, Dallas) or the Regional Offices in New York, Boston, San >Francisco.

The more I read this the more I get confused. They are sending all the pending cases to BEC or Other regions, so each processing center will have FIFO Q? or there will be only one National FIFO Q? Which priority date they look at State or Federal? Looks like they will totally mess this up. I am not expecting my case to be approved in next 2 years.

RD: SEP 2004 Chicago DOL
 
New procedure in Nut Shell

This is what is my understanding of what is going to happen from this point onwards.

Up till December 31 2004 (for both RIR & Non-RIR)

1> SWA - Received --Opened --- Completed ---Goes to Regional Office
2> SWA - Received -- Opened--- Not completed as on Dec 31 '04 (mostly RFE cases)-- SWA needs to compete the processing and send to NPC
3> SWA - Received -- Unopened --- Goes to BEC
4> Cases received by Regional office up to Dec 31 2004 - If classified as Backlog it goes to BEC - if not classified as Backlog the processing has to be completed by Regional office. (How they are going to classify the cases as backlog or non backlog is a secret)

On and after Jan 1 2005

If No-PERM
All the LC cases to be filed at SWA. The SWA will log and date the application and send it to respective NCP for them to complete the processing.

If PERM is implemented then all the cases have to be processed through PERM. There will not be any NPC.

I feel that the cases filed on or before Dec 31 2004 will have to wait much longer then new cases filed in Jan 2005. This is because only those cases SWA - Received -- Opened--- Not completed as on Dec 31 '04 will go to NPC, which are likely to be much smaller in number. All new applications filed in Jan/Feb 2005 might see a very fast approval because there will not be any backlog at NPC. The backlog is going to be in BEC and Regional Offices.
 
Thanks APD...now the new procedures are somewhat clear. NPC might get flood of applications on Jan 1st, 2005.
 
Here New Rule/Memo Original File

Hi

Here find Original PDF about this New Memo


Please Don't send emails. I am also a Fellow Member. i found useful info. So posted to share with other memebers.

So Act Based on Information or your wish.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Bad Times Ahead

Processing Dates
Region Regular Permanent RIR
Chicago Aug. 2002 Dec. 2003
Dallas Mar. 2000 Jan. 2003
Denver Aug. 2004 Aug. 2004
San Francisco Jan. 2003 Mar. 2003
Seattle Sept. 2004 Apr. 2004

By deciding to combine all Federal Regions to one NPC or BRC (Whatever Bullshit they namel it), The processing time assumes the last of the ones in that region. We have some big time(Texas, Cal, Michigan) states put with Chicago so if they combine all States and start processing on FIFO basis, the processing date for Chicago NRC would be Jan 2003 for RIR and Mar 2000 for Non - RIR (Thanks to the Cowboys.. Texas)

If you have a receipt date of July 2004 for RIR case (as my case is...) instead of waiting 6 or 7 months i guess i will be waiting atleast 18 months to get mine approved.... That too if the dates move every month. The latest i can expect my LC approval is December 2005, if i have a job that loooong :)

Guess What...We are all Screwed...

If my statement above is wrong... pls clarify...
 
I do not think all the cases in Chicago Regional office are going to get screwed.

Not all the cases will go to BRC( Backlog Reduction Center). Recent cases of past 2-3 months may still be processed at the Regional office.

For convenience sake let's assume that they decide to transfer all the cases received in Chicago regional office before July 2004 to BRC and those received after July 2004 are kept in the regional office.

If your case remains in the regional office you can expect prompt approval since you will be amongst the first in FIFO.

If your case goes to BRC then you are amongst the last in FIFO so in that case it might take 18-20 months. But otherwise also looking at the speed at which Chicago regional office was processing it would have easily taken year for your case, if this new procedure was not introduced.

We will have to see what criteria they apply for transfering cases to BRC.

Hope this helps .


anandrajesh said:
Processing Dates
Region Regular Permanent RIR
Chicago Aug. 2002 Dec. 2003
Dallas Mar. 2000 Jan. 2003
Denver Aug. 2004 Aug. 2004
San Francisco Jan. 2003 Mar. 2003
Seattle Sept. 2004 Apr. 2004

By deciding to combine all Federal Regions to one NPC or BRC (Whatever Bullshit they namel it), The processing time assumes the last of the ones in that region. We have some big time(Texas, Cal, Michigan) states put with Chicago so if they combine all States and start processing on FIFO basis, the processing date for Chicago NRC would be Jan 2003 for RIR and Mar 2000 for Non - RIR (Thanks to the Cowboys.. Texas)

If you have a receipt date of July 2004 for RIR case (as my case is...) instead of waiting 6 or 7 months i guess i will be waiting atleast 18 months to get mine approved.... That too if the dates move every month. The latest i can expect my LC approval is December 2005, if i have a job that loooong :)

Guess What...We are all Screwed...

If my statement above is wrong... pls clarify...
Click to expand...
 
uniball said:
Today (October 22, 2004) the Fedral DOL processing time for Chicago is 12/15/2003.

http://www.immigration.com/processing-times/dol.html

Last month (Sept, 2004) for the same center it was 12/17/2003.
http://www.immigration.com/processing-times/dolsep04.html

How is this possible? Could this be a typo? Or has time started travelling in the opposite direction?
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These are not the official processing times. Any way, these timing make no sence now, with all this new restructuring going on. We know that they did not touched any cases for the past one month.
 
DOL memo

source:www.immigration-law.com
10/23/2004: Ongoing Reorganization of Labor Certification Functions at the Federal Level

For the last two days, we have posted messages as to how the labor certification functions at the State level are reengineered before or after January 1, 2005. Basically, the State offices will be phased out. Now, a Regional Office memo of DOL/ETA dated October 21, 2004 indicates that the Regional offices structure (currently 6 Regions) will also be phased out and the entire staff of the offices of certifying officers at the six Regions will be transferred to the National Processing Centers (NPC) in Chicago and Atlanta by the end of December 2004. We reported earlier that the Region V office was relocating to the site of National Processing Center in Chicago and all the files were being boxed for moving. It turns out that this moving involves more than physical relocation of the Region V. It involves the separation of the foreign labor certification function and staff from the Regional structure of ETA of DOL and merge into the "national" structure of the ETA of DOL. The Memorandum states as follows:
The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is proceeding with a reorganization of its offices, divisons and units to better serve its customers. Part of this reoganization is a redeployment of Federal staff involved with foreign labor certification. This function has been transferred from the Regional Offices to the Office of National Programs, Division of Foreign Labor Certification (DFLC). The Division has reorganized its foreign labor certification activities in a new structure intended to eliminate the current Permanent Program backlog and implement the new Program Electronic Review Management (PERM) system. The newly created structure will be Center-based and include all program functions and Federal staff currently residing in ETA Regional Offices. Before the end of calendar year 2004, Federal foreign labor certification staff nationwide will be relocated to two Perm Processing Centers located in Atlanta and Chicago.
The Region V Foreign Labor Certification Staff are currently in the process of moving and its new name and office address are as follow:
Chicago Perm Processing Center
844 N. Rush St.
12th Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60611
This is indeed an earth-shaking reform of alien labor certification system!
 
This is indeed earth-shaking reform. We are screwed big time. Our applications are headed for BCE and we have to compete with people from California and Texas.
 
Delay

Hi,

I understand your concern and I am also in the same boat. Received in the regional office on July 6th 2004.

With this new rules in place how long it may take to clear the regional in chicago??

I am not expecting in months at least right now.

Any sign of hopes near by??

Shall I have to look for alternatives or wait until the new process really strts in action??

Any guess please??
 
I think now it will depend on when your case was filed at the SWA. Lets say there are 4 different cases all received in the Regional office on July 6th 2004.

They all will be processed based on their priority date i.e. when they were received at their respective SWA. So out of those 4 cases if one is from Chicago and other is from Nebraska obviously the Chicago case will have earlier priority date and that will be processed first.

With the FIFO now it is a game of priority dates. If your case took a long time to approve at SWA for whatever reason you might be lucky now.

The aim of BEC is to clear all the backlog in 2 years time. After that they will close the BECs. Since your case has already reached the regional office there might be hundreds of thousands of cases with priority date later than yours. Your case could be somewhere in the middle of the entire queue and if they want to clear entire backlog in 2 years, your approval may come in less than 1 year. Check your priority date. You may not be in as bad a situation as you think. Do not panic.

Even though this new procedure will jeopardize many cases, I feel it will do justice to many.

This is my guess. Good Luck.


img123 said:
Hi,

I understand your concern and I am also in the same boat. Received in the regional office on July 6th 2004.

With this new rules in place how long it may take to clear the regional in chicago??

I am not expecting in months at least right now.

Any sign of hopes near by??

Shall I have to look for alternatives or wait until the new process really strts in action??

Any guess please??
Click to expand...
 
I have been reading the posts for past couple of days.
people have been talking about the second scenario but what if PERM is okayed and is implemented.
In that case, can we transfer our normal cases to PERM and how fast will that process be?
 
Chicago Dol

Just talked to lady in Chicago DOL , she says, they been processing Dec 24 cases. I asked reason behind the delay. She said, we got huge number of cases of all type piled up in December. She says the move is also happening, so processing is slow. But in 3-4 weeks you will see lots of cases being picked up.

Hope her words come true. Its just a hope , everytime we hope, our hope is punished by GOD badly. But still hope is hope.

Kanjoos
 
The lady at Chicago DOL told me the same that they were processing Dec 24, 2003 cases.

For the last 6 months they've been saying that things will move in the next 3-4 weeks. In another month or so, they'll be in Thanksgiving/Christmas mode. It looks like they'll actually start moving the cases next year (late January).

Extremely frustrating experience :(
 
Don't you stay in the dream world anymore. I do not think CHIC DOL is going to approve any more cases. All the files are BOXED and waiting to be transfered to one of the BECs. Read the post bellow - source immigration-law.com. DOL Regional Offices are also on it's way to become history very soon. When they did not do anything when the files were on their desks it is foolish to hope for any approvals when the files are in the "BOX"?


10/23/2004: Ongoing Reorganization of Labor Certification Functions at the Federal Level

* For the last two days, we have posted messages as to how the labor certification functions at the State level are reengineered before or after January 1, 2005. Basically, the State offices will be phased out. Now, a Regional Office memo of DOL/ETA dated October 21, 2004 indicates that the Regional offices structure (currently 6 Regions) will also be phased out and the entire staff of the offices of certifying officers at the six Regions will be transferred to the National Processing Centers (NPC) in Chicago and Atlanta by the end of December 2004. We reported earlier that the Region V office was relocating to the site of National Processing Center in Chicago and all the files were being boxed for moving. It turns out that this moving involves more than physical relocation of the Region V. It involves the separation of the foreign labor certification function and staff from the Regional structure of ETA of DOL and merge into the "national" structure of the ETA of DOL. The Memorandum states as follows:
* The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is proceeding with a reorganization of its offices, divisons and units to better serve its customers. Part of this reoganization is a redeployment of Federal staff involved with foreign labor certification. This function has been transferred from the Regional Offices to the Office of National Programs, Division of Foreign Labor Certification (DFLC). The Division has reorganized its foreign labor certification activities in a new structure intended to eliminate the current Permanent Program backlog and implement the new Program Electronic Review Management (PERM) system. The newly created structure will be Center-based and include all program functions and Federal staff currently residing in ETA Regional Offices. Before the end of calendar year 2004, Federal foreign labor certification staff nationwide will be relocated to two Perm Processing Centers located in Atlanta and Chicago.
+ The Region V Foreign Labor Certification Staff are currently in the process of moving and its new name and office address are as follow:
+
Chicago Perm Processing Center
844 N. Rush St.
12th Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60611
* This is indeed an earth-shaking reform of alien labor certification system!

Kanjoos said:
Just talked to lady in Chicago DOL , she says, they been processing Dec 24 cases. I asked reason behind the delay. She said, we got huge number of cases of all type piled up in December. She says the move is also happening, so processing is slow. But in 3-4 weeks you will see lots of cases being picked up.

Hope her words come true. Its just a hope , everytime we hope, our hope is punished by GOD badly. But still hope is hope.

Kanjoos
Click to expand...
 
Line-Up of DOL New Four National Labor Certification Centers

Even the leadrship team for the new structure has been announced

10/24/2004: Line-Up of DOL New Four National Labor Certification Centers

* The reshape of the leadership of the national foreign labor certification recruits mostly the existing leaders in the current Regions as follows:
o National Certifying Officer: Bill Carlson, Chief of Forein Labor Certification, National Programs, ETA, DOL
o Chicago National Processing Center Director: Charlene Giles (former Dallas Region Certifying Officer)
o Atlanta National Processing Center Director: Gene Caso
o Philadelphia Backlog Elimination Center Director: Steve Stefanko (Current Certifying Officer of Region II)
o Dallas Backlog Elimination Center Director: John Barlett (Former Certifying Officer of Region IV)
* The Certifying Officer of each National Processing Center has yet to be announced. The current Certifying Officers in the Regions who are left out of the appointment are: Region I, Region III, Region IV, and Region VI. It is interesting to see who will survive in the final line-up.
* As we reported quite earlier, the Backlog Elimination Centers are manned by private contract in Maryland, named EXCEED Corporation.
 
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