Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals is an adjudicative agency that decides in appeal PERM and wage disputes.
BALCA Appeal Times (as of July 18, 2016)
Bottomline: BALCA appeals take approximately 3.5 to 4 years from the date the appeal is filed.
- Appeals from PERM denials with BALCA office are currently taking about 3.5 - 4 years from date of docket
- Dockets are being completed within the same month that they are received
Discussed: Gap in status (H-4); EB-3 or EB-2 PERM distinction; BALCA appeal times; obtaining copy of I-140 receipt/approval FOIA; options to work after 6 years of H-1; Sponsoring green card while living outside the USA; OPT issues; CR-1 to IR; Obamacare and affidavit of support; cross-chargeability; E-1 visa; H-1B amendment; H-1 quota issues; multiple H-1 approvals; continuous residence for US citizenship/naturalization; I-140 revoked priority date; green card for researchers; etc.
U.S. Department of Labor, ETA-Office of Foreign Labor Certification Announcement:
We filed a PERM application under EB-2 for a Senior Programmer Analyst’s position early this year. Three months later, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued an Audit Notification. Immediately following our response, DOL denied the application, citing that our audit response did not include a copy of the job order.
In a case decided yesterday, we had filed an appeal to BALCA against a PERM denial by the Certifying Officer (“CO”). The ground for denial was that the Job Order did not provide the exact salary offered to the foreign worker. We showed in our appeal that the fault lay with the Job Order form of the State Workforce Agency. The form did not permit us to enter the higher end of the wage range for our job, where we had offered a wage range instead of an exact figure. The CO appears to have agreed with us and has withdrawn denial and certified our case.