With the federal government reopened, the Department of Labor’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) announced late Thursday that its Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG) is fully operational again. During the 43-day funding lapse (Oct 1–Nov 12) employers could not file LCAs, PERM applications or prevailing-wage requests, effectively freezing most employment-based immigration sponsorship.
In guidance circulated to stakeholders, OFLC said it will:
• Deem any PERM or prevailing-wage requests post-marked between Oct 1 and Nov 2 as timely filed once entered into FLAG.
• Automatically extend by 33 days all response deadlines—RFIs, audits, NOAs, NODs and reconsideration motions—that fell within the shutdown window.
• Allow employers to use expired recruitment or prevailing-wage validity periods if they lapsed during the shutdown, provided filings are completed within the 33-day grace period.
• Activate emergency filing procedures for H-2A, H-2B and CW-1 cases where “good and substantial cause” is demonstrated.
![Department of Labor Restores FLAG System, Grants 33-Day Extensions for Shutdown-Hit PERM and LCA Filings]()
The reprieve helps employers salvage time-sensitive green-card sponsorships and seasonal worker petitions that would otherwise have been void, but labor-market tests may still have to be re-run if other validity periods have expired. Practitioners recommend immediately auditing case inventories, recalculating recruitment windows and updating foreign nationals whose start dates may move.
OFLC’s action follows similar moves by USCIS and the State Department to reschedule hundreds of thousands of canceled appointments. Mobility leaders should expect processing bottlenecks throughout Q1 2026 as agencies work through backlogs while operating under a stop-gap funding bill that expires January 30.
In guidance circulated to stakeholders, OFLC said it will:
• Deem any PERM or prevailing-wage requests post-marked between Oct 1 and Nov 2 as timely filed once entered into FLAG.
• Automatically extend by 33 days all response deadlines—RFIs, audits, NOAs, NODs and reconsideration motions—that fell within the shutdown window.
• Allow employers to use expired recruitment or prevailing-wage validity periods if they lapsed during the shutdown, provided filings are completed within the 33-day grace period.
• Activate emergency filing procedures for H-2A, H-2B and CW-1 cases where “good and substantial cause” is demonstrated.
The reprieve helps employers salvage time-sensitive green-card sponsorships and seasonal worker petitions that would otherwise have been void, but labor-market tests may still have to be re-run if other validity periods have expired. Practitioners recommend immediately auditing case inventories, recalculating recruitment windows and updating foreign nationals whose start dates may move.
OFLC’s action follows similar moves by USCIS and the State Department to reschedule hundreds of thousands of canceled appointments. Mobility leaders should expect processing bottlenecks throughout Q1 2026 as agencies work through backlogs while operating under a stop-gap funding bill that expires January 30.
