On November 5, 2025, the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) within the Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it would make the following temporary changes to its standard procedures related to applications and documents that were impacted by government shutdown from October 1, 2025, through November 2, 2025:
1. New submissions mailed to the OFLC (PERM, Prevailing Wage, etc.)
- Mail post mark must be between October 1 and November 2, 2025
- OFLC will manually enter the applications and other correspondence into the FLAG system.
- Once entered into the FLAG system, a case number will be assigned and employers will receive notifications that applications have been received for processing.
- OFLC will respond to correspondence submitted by email, mail, or commercial delivery as soon as practicable.
- Any application or other correspondence submitted by mail or commercial delivery service will be considered filed on the date it was postmarked.
- Any correspondence sent by email will be deemed to have been received the day it was sent.
2. Automatic extensions of 33 days:
a. Responses to Requests for Information, Notices of Acceptance, Notices of Deficiencies, Audit Notices, Requests for Reconsideration or Review, and all other responses
- Original deadline to respond must have fallen between October 1 through November 2, 2025.
- Deadlines that fell within those dates will be automatically extended by 33 calendar days. Employers do not need to submit request to extend any submission deadlines that fell during that time period.
b. PERM applications
- Only applies if recruitment efforts or Prevailing Wage Determination (PWD) expired between October 1 and November 2, 2025
- Note: Employers may receive a warning message from the FLAG system when submitting a PERM application with recruitment that is outside the regulatory 180-day filing window or when using an expired PWD, but will still be able to complete and submit the application. If a case is falling into this exception is denied due to expired recruitment efforts or PWD, a request for reconsideration explaining the circumstances may be submitted to the OFLC Certifying Officer.
3. Emergency filing Procedures for H-2A, H-2B and CW-1 Applications
- H-2A and H-2B regulations include provisions for requesting waivers of the regulatory time period for filing an application
- CW-1 regulations contain a provision permitting employers to request permission to submit an application without obtaining a PWD
- Employers must demonstrate good and substantial cause for the requests to be accepted (cessation of DOL processing activities from October 1 – November 2, 2025, was outside of the control of employers and meets this requirement)
- OFLC encourages employers to submit emergency requests by following the regulatory provisions
4. This Guidance only applies to deadlines imposed by the OFLC and does not apply to deadlines for submission appeals or to deadlines set by the Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA)
- OFLC does not have the authority to change regulatory deadlines for BALCA submissions or alter deadlines set by BALCA
- Employers may reach out to BALCA directly at OALJ-Questions@dol.gov