Hi,
Our company is posting a job ad internally and may be the coming sunday newspaper too for the perm conversion.
It took about 4 months to reach this step, and kind of frustration. What can you do when you work for a huge company.
I guessed it may not ready to file perm conversion until July, 2006 based on our HR and attorney's working pace.
Personally I think if your non RIR case did not reach to regional level before transferring to backlog center, then it may worth to convert the pending labor to perm. But it also depends on your company's working pace and attitute. If they process your case like our company, then it may not save you too much time because all backlog cases will be processed within a year or two.
Long story in short, if your company starts the conversion process now and can complete the filing no more than 4-5 months, you may worth to try.
Regarding filing a new perm with other employer, I think you definitly can do that if you do not mind spend several thousands dolloars legal fee. It always safe if there is a backup. The another drawback is that you can use the old priority date if you file a new perm with another employer. I filed perm for my wife and she got approved in Jan. 06
Good luck and have a nice weekend.