Any company who has ever wanted or tried to hire a foreign national to do a domestic job needs to go through the process of PERM certification. This complicated process involves dozens of steps that need to be done perfectly and in a certain process in order for the U.S. government to provide a green card for the new employee.
The responsibilities of PERM certification, including recruitment ads in the Bay Area and everything else, falls on the shoulders of the employer. This is why so many companies choose to hire recruitment advertising firms in the Bay Area to help them through this complicated process. However, even if an employer chooses to hire a PERM advertising agency, it is still a good idea for them to have a basic understanding of what PERM certification involved. That is why this article is here to provide a brief breakdown of the basics of PERM certification.
What Is PERM Certification?
As previously explained, the PERM certification process is something that is in place to facilitate the hiring of foreign nationals to do U.S. jobs. This process is in place as a prerequisite for a foreign worker eventually obtaining a green card, which would allow them PERManent residency in the country.
This process is done largely through the U.S. Department of Labor, which makes the major decisions about whether a PERM certification process is going to be accepted or not. Since it deals with government agencies, even the smallest mistakes can cause an application to be severely delayed or even rejected entirely.
The reason why this process is so complicated is so that it can help to ensure that U.S. workers are not getting disadvantaged in order to bring over foreign national workers. Since these foreign national workers are working jobs that are in the U.S. and are something that a portion of American workers are likely capable of doing, it only makes sense that they should be offered to Americans first.
However, companies cannot be trusted to self-police themselves when it comes to stating whether or not they truly offered the job to American workers before hiring a foreign national. So instead, the government agencies like the Department of Labor step in and take over the process of overseeing the company’s attempt at hiring American workers first. That is what the PERM certification process is about and the reason why it involves so many precise steps.
The Job Description
The PERM application process is a lengthy series of steps that involves everything from creating a job description to posting it in various advertisements, which is usually done using recruitment advertising agencies in the Bay Area. One of the first steps that needs to be conducted is the creation of the job description, which is something that requires far more attention and detailed than the average job description posting.
Depending on what the specific job is, there are various criteria that the Department of Labor requires be included in the description. This process is so specific that even the wording used in the description could make or break the PERM application process. That is why companies should be smart about it and hire a PERM advertising agency to help guide them through the specifics of this process. Spending a small additional fee to get a team of professionals to help ensure that the process is completed correctly is far better than trying to do it themselves and wasting money and several weeks, if not months, of their time only to find out that their application was rejected due to a common error.
During the job description creation process, the company will need to obtain a prevailing wage, which is provided by the Department of Labor. This wage will determine what the standard is for that same position within the area that the position will be based.
State Workforce Agency Advertising
After the job posting has been created, it will need to be publicly advertised in accordance with the State Workforce Agency’s requirements. This step involves advertising for certain amounts of time in various mediums. The specific advertising channels that are used is up to the company as long as they include the necessary criteria.
The big requirement of this step of the process is being included in a newspaper advertisement spot. If the position is what is deemed by the government as a professional position, then it could require even more advertising specifics in order to be accepted.
Not only does this job posting need to be advertised to the general American population, but it also needs to be advertised internally to the company’s existing workforce as well. Even after the employer completes all of the extensive advertising criteria, they must wait a minimum of 30 days in order to electronically submit their PERM certification to the government.
Even after it has been submitted, it is possible that the Department of Labor could decide to audit the application. If this occurs, then the employer will need to provide the government with evidence that they followed the proper advertising and other recruitment criteria that are required. If the application becomes subjected to an adult, that the entire certification process could easily take over a year.
Filing Form I-140
Just because the Department of Labor receives a completed PERM application and decides to approve it, that does not mean that the process of hiring a foreign national is done. After this has happened, the employer still needs to fill out and submit the immigrant visa petition, which is more commonly known as Form I-140.
This needs to be sent to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services within the 180 day period after the PERM application is approved, which is how long the PERM certification is valid for. If the form is not filed within that period of time, then it may result in the company having to completely redo their PERM certification, which would set them back months of time and thousands of dollars.
