Frustrating Issues Remain with DOL iCERT System Even After Government Shutdown Ends
October 29th, 2013 by Andrew M. Wilson
The federal government shutdown is over, but that does not mean that everything is running smoothly again with all federal agencies.
There are still post-shutdown issues related to LCA and PERM filings with the Department of Labor (DOL), including LCAs that were submitted in late September that remain pending, PERM applications that were approved on September 30th but the hard copy certification approval has not been received in the mail and supervised recruitment emails that appear to have been deleted without being read. There are also questions about PERMs that could not be filed during the shutdown, but the ads or prevailing wage determinations have since expired.
In addition, the Obamacare website is not the only one experiencing technical difficulties. While the iCERT and PERM portals were re-started on Friday, October 18th, they remain extremely slow and sometimes unusable. Some attorneys have complained that it was taking hours just to get through the LCA application filing. Accessing the PERM portal has been tough as well. The main problem is likely the high volume of attorneys accessing the systems all at once to file cases they had been holding for 2+ weeks.
The DOL is aware of all of these issues, and things will surely improve over the next few weeks. For example, we received hard copy PERM certification approvals in the mail today that had been approved on September 30th. We also recently re-filed an audit response last week that was previously filed timely but unable to be delivered to the DOL during the shutdown. (We provided proof of previous attempted deliveries) We expect that the DOL will accept that filing as timely.
All of these issues will be resolved, but they are temporarily a frustrating byproduct of the government shutdown.
