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Calendar year 2009 saw U.S. Department of Labor delays and intractable glitches in issuing Labor Condition Attestations (LCA), a requirement in filing H-1B petitions. There are now new e-filing procedures required for obtaining a prevailing wage determination that must be allowed for in calculating preparation time. Formerly, the prevailing wage was obtained through the State Workforce Agency (SWA) by mail or fax and generally received within 7-14 days. Now, the prevailing wage determination must be obtained electronically from the U.S. Department of Labor. Because of this new requirement, it is anticipated that obtaining a prevailing wage determination could take up to 30 days. Once the prevailing wage determination is received, a petitioning employer should allow an additional 7 days, absent DOL error, for processing the LCA.
This means that in order to be ready for the April 1, 2010 filing date, the prevailing wage request must be submitted electronically no later than February 15, 2010.
The ability for users to file ETA Form 9141 electronically to request a Prevailing Wage determination from the National Processing Center.
Users will be able to perform similar actions to submit and manage their 9141 applications as they currently are able to do for their LCA Form 9035 applications:
Start a new prevailing wage application and submit online electronically
Save a prevailing wage application in progress and return at a later time to finish data entry
Withdraw a submitted prevailing wage application
Reuse the information on a current prevailing wage application to create a new application
Delete un-submitted (initiated) prevailing wage applications
Request a Redetermination Review for applications that have been given determinations
The ability for users to further manage their accounts and sub‑accounts and grant or withdraw permission to access the Prevailing Wage feature
Readily available Printable Forms and their Instructions from within the prevailing wage application
A new Case Summary screen (upon logging into iCERT) that will allow users to easily see the status of their last 10 applications submitted and quickly see the last 10 applications that had a decision enacted
Employers or their authorized representatives who intend to use the iCert System to electronically submit prevailing wage applications will be required to register on the iCert system and create accounts prior to electronically submitting their applications.
Employers (or their authorized representatives) who are already registered to use the iCERT System may continue using their existing accounts but will be required to activate the Prevailing Wage feature. This can only be activated on or after January 21, 2010. Please review the Prevailing Wage Quick Start Guide to set up your account properly to submit Form 9141 applications.
At this time, those employers who are using the iCERT System but wish to use a private wage source (i.e. a source other than OES or SCA/DBA) or a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) wage rate must continue to submit supporting documentation (for the wage source they wish to use) in hard copy by U.S. mail or other physical delivery service. The employer may either mail in the application with supporting documents in hard copy or file the application electronically and submit the supporting documents by mail after an electronic case number is issued. The hard copies of documents filed in support of electronically submitted applications must include the electronic case number associated with that prevailing wage application.
On November 5, 2009 the USCIS began accepting H-1B petitions filed with uncertified LCAs for a 120-day period; this is in effect through March 4, 2010. However, USCIS will only accept such H-1B petitions if they are filed at least 7 calendar days after the LCAs were filed with DOL and include evidence of these filings. The only acceptable evidence of filing is a copy of DOL’s email giving notice of receipt of the LCA.