In welcome news for U.S. employers, the Department of Labor’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) announced on November 4 that its FLAG filing portal and SeasonalJobs.gov website are back online after a nearly month-long shutdown outage. The systems are used to submit Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) for H-1B visas and PERM labor-certification applications—the first step toward many employment-based green cards.
OFLC confirmed that thousands of LCAs and prevailing-wage requests queued since October 1 are now being processed. Technology firms in Silicon Valley and biotech employers in Boston report receiving certification receipts within hours of resubmission, compared with the multi-week delays feared during the shutdown. The agency said it will prioritize cases where foreign workers face imminent status expirations.
![Labor Department reopens H-1B and PERM portals after shutdown outage]()
Immigration attorneys advise companies to check filing deadlines carefully: the agency will accept late LCAs dated between October 1 and November 3 if employers include a sworn statement citing the funding lapse. However, 45-day recruitment windows for PERM cases were not tolled, so some filings may need to restart advertising cycles—adding cost and jeopardizing visa status.
For global mobility teams, the resumption means H-1B amendment and extension filings can move forward, allowing planned project deployments and inter-company transfers to get back on track. Employers should still anticipate residual delays as OFLC clears a month of backlog and as USCIS labor-condition verifications pick up pace.
Looking ahead, bipartisan lawmakers say the episode bolsters arguments for shifting fee-funded immigration processing completely outside annual appropriations to shield critical talent pipelines from political gridlock. Companies should monitor any legislative fixes while ensuring internal trackers reflect the new FLAG submission dates.
OFLC confirmed that thousands of LCAs and prevailing-wage requests queued since October 1 are now being processed. Technology firms in Silicon Valley and biotech employers in Boston report receiving certification receipts within hours of resubmission, compared with the multi-week delays feared during the shutdown. The agency said it will prioritize cases where foreign workers face imminent status expirations.
Immigration attorneys advise companies to check filing deadlines carefully: the agency will accept late LCAs dated between October 1 and November 3 if employers include a sworn statement citing the funding lapse. However, 45-day recruitment windows for PERM cases were not tolled, so some filings may need to restart advertising cycles—adding cost and jeopardizing visa status.
For global mobility teams, the resumption means H-1B amendment and extension filings can move forward, allowing planned project deployments and inter-company transfers to get back on track. Employers should still anticipate residual delays as OFLC clears a month of backlog and as USCIS labor-condition verifications pick up pace.
Looking ahead, bipartisan lawmakers say the episode bolsters arguments for shifting fee-funded immigration processing completely outside annual appropriations to shield critical talent pipelines from political gridlock. Companies should monitor any legislative fixes while ensuring internal trackers reflect the new FLAG submission dates.
