After a month-long freeze caused by the federal government shutdown, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced late on November 3 that its FLAG and PERM online portals were back online and accepting submissions. The outage had prevented employers from filing Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) required for H-1B, E-3 and H-1B1 petitions, as well as prevailing-wage requests and PERM labor-certification applications for green cards.
Thousands of businesses—including hospitals scrambling to onboard foreign physicians and tech firms with year-end start dates—were forced to postpone start dates, rework project staffing and, in some cases, pay bench salary to new hires who could not obtain status without certified LCAs. Immigration counsel warned that protracted outages risked pushing H-1B change-of-employer filings beyond the 60-day grace period and derailing time-sensitive PERM recruitment.
![Department of Labor reopens LCA and prevailing-wage systems, allowing H-1B and PERM filings to resume]()
With processing resumed, DOL says it will prioritize cases submitted during the shutdown, but it has not guaranteed expedited review. Employers are being urged to file delayed LCAs immediately and to expect a surge-driven backlog that could add one to two weeks to normal turnaround times.
For mobility managers, the restart means H-1B transfers and extensions that were on hold can move forward. Companies should, however, review onboarding calendars and client commitments in light of the still-uncertain processing speed and should consider premium processing upgrades once petitions reach USCIS.
Industry groups are pressing Congress to exempt fee-funded immigration operations from future shutdowns, arguing that disruptions in skilled-worker mobility impose outsized costs on U.S. competitiveness.
Thousands of businesses—including hospitals scrambling to onboard foreign physicians and tech firms with year-end start dates—were forced to postpone start dates, rework project staffing and, in some cases, pay bench salary to new hires who could not obtain status without certified LCAs. Immigration counsel warned that protracted outages risked pushing H-1B change-of-employer filings beyond the 60-day grace period and derailing time-sensitive PERM recruitment.
With processing resumed, DOL says it will prioritize cases submitted during the shutdown, but it has not guaranteed expedited review. Employers are being urged to file delayed LCAs immediately and to expect a surge-driven backlog that could add one to two weeks to normal turnaround times.
For mobility managers, the restart means H-1B transfers and extensions that were on hold can move forward. Companies should, however, review onboarding calendars and client commitments in light of the still-uncertain processing speed and should consider premium processing upgrades once petitions reach USCIS.
Industry groups are pressing Congress to exempt fee-funded immigration operations from future shutdowns, arguing that disruptions in skilled-worker mobility impose outsized costs on U.S. competitiveness.
