U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced last week
that they are implementing a 120-day period in which they will accept
H-1B petitions filed without Labor Condition Applications (LCAs)
certified by the Department of Labor (DOL).
USCIS has made this amendment to their regulations after receiving
requests from members of the public asking them to allow acceptance of
H-1B petition filings that include LCAs that have been filed with, but
not yet certified by DOL. DOL’s implementation of the iCERT system has
resulted in an increase in processing delays for certain LCA
certifications. Certain employers and beneficiaries have been
negatively affected by these increased processing times, limiting their
ability to file H-1B petitions with USCIS in a timely fashion.
In order to accommodate those affected by processing delays of LCAs,
USCIS began accepting H-1B petitions with uncertified LCAs on November
5, 2009 and will continue to accept these until March 4, 2010. However,
USCIS will only accept such H-1B petitions if they are filed at least
seven calendar days after the LCAs were filed with DOL and only if the
petitioner provides evidence of this filing.
