PERM Audits

A Perm audit can be issued for cause or randomly. If a PERM Labor Certification has been selected for an audit, the sponsoring employer and the attorney on record will receive an audit notification letter listing all the documents that need to be submitted to the Department of Labor (DOL) within 30 days. If the employer fails to comply with the audit request the application will be denied.

Once the response to the audit notification has been submitted, the Certifying Officer (CO) may approve, deny or order supervised recruitment.

If the CO decided to order supervised recruitment, the employer and the attorney on record will receive a Notification letter listing the types of recruitment that need to be done and instructions to submit all drafts of the mandated recruitment steps back to the CO within 30 days for approval or correction. The new drafts for the advertisements may not substantially differ from the job requirements previously listed on the submitted Form ETA 9089 (PERM Application).

Upon review of the drafts, the CO may issue a correction letter identifying the changes that need to be made before the ads may be placed. After the drafts have been approved, the CO will send further information identifying the publications in which the Employer must advertise. The employer may not initiate recruitment until this letter is received.

The ads that will be posted with the mandated publications will instruct all applicants to submit the resumes to the CO who will forward the resumes (if any) to the Employer and attorney to consider all qualified U.S. workers. Rejections may only be made for lawful reasons.

Once the resumes have been reviewed and the Employer has made its determinations, a recruitment report must be send to the CO within 30 days for final determination.

At any time during the process, the CO may request additional information.

Generally, a supervised recruitment process without any complications or additional requests for evidence takes approximately 180 days to process and receive a final determination.