Hi charlie2003,
Perm will likely start sometime early next year, jan or feb. But it has been delayed several times, and there is no fixed date thus far.
See immigration-law.com breaking news for more info:
"06/21/2003 (Report from New Orleans): Good News and Bad News About PERM Labor Certification Program
* The DOL officials here in the conference are tight-lipped about the dates of final rule release and starting of this program. They just confirm that the rule will be released in the "late Fall" with the 45-day window. Does any one know when the Fall starts and when it ends? One thing which is obvious is that the release date of the regulation and the actual launch date appear to be further pushed off. Everybody here is guessing that the earliest date could be December 2003 or January 2004 or soon after that. Accordingly, their previous prediction of July or September 2003 release of the final rule with the 30-day window (meaning October 2003) turns out to be a history at this point. In fact, the DOL officials warns people out there that they should not waste their money to initiate any expensive recruitment campaign with fixed prediction date of release of the rule and starting date of the program as the released final rule can also be challenged by some politically powerful employers and the effective date can be delayed. This is a bad news if any of you are waiting for the PERM program.
* Now good news is that there is a hint that the final rule will be different from the Proposed PERM rule which contained many poisonous elements. Obviously they softened the requirements reflecting the comments which they had received after they had released the Proposed Rule. No details are known at this time, but all information indicates that the final regulation will look really different from the Proposed Rule. This is a good news. Just hold your breath for a while.
* By the way, we now have a new Chief of Foreign Labor Certification Division in the DOL, who is well informed and an expert when it comes to a foreign labor certification. His name is William Carlson. We welcome his boarding as the captain of this ship and encourage everyone out there to join this reporter to extend contratulations to the Chief. He seems to be a perfect choice for the job. Wonderful!"
It is not known at this moment whether RIR and regular LC lines will be able to upgrade to PERM once the program starts, but it's likely that there won't be a need for priority dates anymore since PERM aims to expedite the LC process with evaluting an application in 21 days.
It is likely that you will be able to file PERM reagrdless of a pending RIR or regular LC, but keep in mind that the proposed requirements are quite stringent and lawyers say that it will be hard to meet the recuitment required under PERM (it is likely to change, but there is no telling at this moment what are the exact requirements). However if you decide to change job and file a new LC (RIR or Regular) you will lose your PD and the right to extend your H status with one year increments beyond the allotted 6 yrs based on the fact that you have an LC pending for more than a year. If you don't care about this perk, just go ahead and change jobs, you will be able to file PERM reagrdless of other pending LCs.
If you are in California, and your case was remanded to EDD for regular processing, you will keep your priority date and the case will be processed as regular (recruitment supervised by EDD) case. EDD estimates that with the current processing speed it'll take them 5.5-6 yrs. to reach cases that are being remanded now.
Hope this helps,
Ana
Originally posted by charlie2003
Thank you guys, gp111, lorestan, and all the people who offer help in this forum. Your help are appreciated.
Do you know anything about PERM? Someone said it will be started from Sept 2003 and others said it will be put off (again?) till next year. Which one is ture?
If PERM will start soon, does it mean everyone who are stuck in RIR and Regular LC will be able to go to PERM. Will it be served FIFO order or the current Priority Date in RIR or Regular matters in PERM?
If I switch a job in 3 months and start Regular LC (RIR is no longer exist, right?), and if PERM start from Jan 2004, can I still file PERM then?
If I stay with current job and keep my RIR priority data (09/21/2001), does anyone know how long the EDD and DOL will be got processed? What is the current processing status?
Thanks again for all your advice!
Charlie
