BPCs Update : July 2006
Source -
http://www.murthy.com/bulletin.html
2. BPCs Update : July 2006
The Murthy Law Firm's experiences with labor certification case processing at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Backlog Processing Centers (BPCs) was last reported in our June 30, 2006 article, BPCs Update on Labor Certifications - June 2006, available on MurthyDotCom. At that time, case adjudications were quite limited, with the primary focus being the issuance of 45-day letters. Now that the deadline for 45-day letters has passed, we hope to start obtaining more approvals on pending labor certifications. The pace of processing is picking up a bit, but the cases continue to come in sporadically.
More BPC Cases from Virginia
More of the approvals we received in July 2006 were for cases originally filed in Virginia. The Virginia cases accounted for about half of our recent case approvals. While we have a number of clients in Virginia, we also have many clients throughout the U.S. These case approvals do not simply reflect the locations of our clients, therefore. The priority dates ranged from December 2002 to March 2003. Virginia cases are processed by the Philadelphia BPC.
New York Making an Appearance
A small number of approvals for cases filed in New York recently have begun to arrive. There are many New York cases pending with the BPC in Philadelphia. There was no pattern to the priority dates of these cases, as they included early 2002 as well as early 2003.
Dallas BPC Continues with 2004 Cases
With the exception of one 2002 case, the case approvals from Dallas all had mid- to late-2004 priority dates. It seems, therefore, that Dallas is still operating on a Last-In / First-Out (LIFO) basis, rather than a First-In / First-Out (FIFO) system, as was originally planned for processing all BPC cases.
Philadelphia mostly adjudicated cases with late 2002 and early 2003 priority dates. They are closer to the FIFO system.
Conclusion
We at the Murthy Law Firm are cautiously optimistic that the pace of approvals will increase now that the 45-day letters have been sent in most cases and a system has been established to reopen those cases that either did not receive the 45-day letters or were rejected by the DOL in error, even after they had received the 45-day letters. We will continue to track case adjudications received at our firm for the benefit of our readers.