BECs Closed as of December 21, 2007
Posted Jan 04, 2008
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The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has announced that both the Dallas and Philadelphia Backlog Elimination Centers (BECs) closed on December 21, 2007. The wrap-up of the Labor Certification (LC) work of the BECs was reported to MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers in our Nov 16, 2007 article, LC Backlog Elimination Update - October 2007. The DOL has answered questions regarding any pending LC cases that previously would have been addressed by the BECs. These LC cases will now be handled by the National Processing Center in Chicago. Details for properly contacting the National Processing Center in Chicago follow.
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Method for Communicating with the Chicago NPC
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With the December 21, 2007 closure, it is no longer possible to contact the BECs. If there are any lingering questions regarding the disposition of a case, these should be directed to the DOL's National Processing Center (NPC) in Chicago. However, the DOL advised that the NPC will not have direct access to case files and, thus, will only have limited information available.
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The Chicago NPC can be reached via eMail at: bec.chicago@dol.gov. The subject line should read: Attn: Backlog. To contact the Chicago NPC via U.S. Mail, one should write to:

U.S. Department of Labor
Employment and Training Administration
Attn: BEC Inquiries, 844 N. Rush Street, 12th Floor
Chicago, IL  60611

Mail sent to the BECs immediately prior to their closing was forwarded to the Chicago NPC. Any further correspondence sent to the BEC will also be forwarded to the Chicago NPC.
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Appeals on Backlog Cases to be Filed with Chicago NPC
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If a BEC case was denied either by the Dallas or Philadelphia BEC, the appeal is also filed with the Chicago NPC. The address is as listed above, but it should be put to the Attn: BEC Appeals.
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If a case is currently on appeal, it will be tracked by the Chicago NPC. If the appeal results in the Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) issuing a decision that requires action by the DOL, the Chicago NPC will carry out the instructions.
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Tracking information for appeals cases is available through the Public Disclosure (PDS) system and will continue to be available until all cases have completed the BALCA appeal process.
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OFLC to Process any Remaining Backlog Cases Pending at BECs
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If a case was not completed prior to the BECs' closing, which is very unlikely according to the DOL, then it will be completed by the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) personnel. Our experience has been that all of the BEC cases filed by the Murthy Law Firm were adjudicated prior to December 21, 2007.
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Conclusion
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This final wrap-up information regarding the BECs is appreciated. The Herculean task of managing and adjudicating over 360,000 labor certification filings from all across the U.S. has been completed. There is now a much more uniform system under PERM, which provides significantly faster adjudication overall. Although PERM audits can cause delays, this system generally is far more efficient, compared to the earlier LC system.