DOL Transition Watch : BEC Letters & Case Transfers
BEC 45-Day Letters
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced that the Dallas and Philadelphia Backlog Elimination Centers (BECs), sometimes referred to as the Backlog Reduction Centers or BRCs, would be issuing approximately 10,000 Receipt Notification Letters during the week of December 6, 2004. These letters require sponsoring employers to respond within the stated time. If no response is received, the case will be closed.
These DOL-issued receipt notification letters request certain information from sponsoring employers and have a response deadline of 45 days. If the DOL does not receive a response to a letter within the 45-day deadline, the case will be closed. These letters should normally be sent to the employer's representative. If the employer receives the letter directly but has an attorney, the employer should speak to the attorney regarding the letter immediately.
Case Transfers from SWAs to BECs
Cases from the Atlanta and Chicago National Processing Centers (NPCs) are next on the list to be sent to the BECs. Note that these are the cases that came from the regions already and are not expected to include cases filed after January 1, 2005.
SWA Timeframes for Case Transfers
The DOL released instructions to the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) on December 3, 2004 regarding how to ship their unopened cases to the BECs. SWAs are directed to send all unopened cases with receipt dates prior to 2003 to the assigned BECs by December 31, 2004. Those remaining cases that the SWAs have not started to process as of January 1, 2005, must be sent to the BECs in a second shipment that is due by March 31, 2005.
Separate Processing for Regular and RIRs
The DOL directs the SWAs to put the labor certification (LC) cases into boxes by First-In / First-Out (FIFO) order. The RIR cases are to be boxed separately from the Regular (Non-RIR) cases. The SWAs must report to the DOL by December 13, 2004 regarding the transmission of cases. They must identify an SWA point of contact and provide a complete mailing address. They must give an approximate number of cases that are expected to be included in Shipment 1 as well as in Shipment 2, the approximate date range of cases to be sent, the preferred shipping dates and anticipated time required to complete all shipments. There are also extensive quality control procedures at both ends of the packing and receiving process to avoid the loss of files.
Atlanta National Processing Center
The Atlanta Regional Office is scheduled to move into the Atlanta National Processing Center December 9 and 10, 2004. The Atlanta National Processing Center is scheduled to open a few days later, on December 13, 2004. The Federal Register will carry a Notice with the new Atlanta address for the NPC and contact information within the next few weeks.
Conclusion
Many changes are now taking place with labor certification processing and will continue beyond 2005 with a vision to streamline the LC process and make it more efficient. We at The Law Office of Sheela Murthy hope that the uniformity among the states with the NPCs and the reduction / elimination of backlogs yields results that make the system work efficiently for our clients as well as all those undergoing the process.
SOURCE: © 2004 The Law Office of Sheela Murthy, P.C. All Rights Reserved
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