The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently posted the June 2024 edition of their monthly updates regarding DOL processing times for permanent labor certification applications (PERM) and prevailing wage determination (PWD) requests, both important components of the most common employment-based green card route.

As of June 1, 2024, the DOL was adjudicating PERM applications filed in May 2023 and earlier and was conducting audit reviews on applications filed in December 2022 and earlier. Further, the DOL was reviewing reconsideration requests and appeals filed in August 2023 and earlier. In this latest update, the DOL also provided the average number of days to process PERM applications for initial analyst review (387 days) and for audited cases (478 days).

The table below provides a comparison of DOL’s processing times in the June 2024 update with their May 2024 and June 2023 updates.

As shown in the chart above, DOL’s average PERM processing times have increased significantly since June 2023. Given this increase, employers should consider initiating the PERM process as early as possible. For time-sensitive cases, employers should consider alternative employment-based green card routes that do not require a preliminary labor market test and PERM filing with the DOL.