H1B LCA Processing Update
Posted Dec 14, 1998

Under the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1998 (ACWIA), the DOL will not be provided its share of the 6.5% fees collected from the new $500 H1B filing fees effective from December 1, 1998, until it is able to process all of the Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) within the statutory 7 working days, as required by law.

Maybe in response to that statutory requirement, we can finally pass along some good news regarding processing times for LCAs, for H1B petitions. We mentioned previously, in the November 15, 1998 Bulletin of the Law Office of Sheela Murthy, that some regions were experiencing serious processing delays due to computer breakdowns. We have now been informed by AILA that the Department of Labor (DOL) has authorized funds for overtime work to reduce the backlog. The regions affected include Region II (New York), Region V (Chicago) and Region IX (San Francisco). DOL reports that progress is being made.

However, Region IV (Atlanta) has completely halted processing of LCAs over one month ago. The machine used to process LCAs is available only from one company and it has to be specially ordered. Unfortunately, the machine is now broken and the replacement has not arrived. AILA has requested that DOL purchase two machines so that a backup machine will be available, to avoid similar emergencies in the future.