Department of Labor January 7, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) of the Department of Labor (Department or DOL) is issuing this Notice to announce that DOL has moved its foreign labor certification field staff in the Atlanta and Chicago Regional Offices to the new Atlanta and Chicago National Processing Centers. This Notice provides the public in the Atlanta and Chicago regions with contact information regarding these two new processing centers. All foreign labor certification processing activities previously conducted in the Atlanta and Chicago Regional Offices will now be assumed by the corresponding Atlanta or Chicago National Processing Centers. The regulation to implement the re-engineered permanent labor certification program was published in the Federal Register on December 27, 2004. The National Processing Centers will continue current functions on an interim basis and ETA will provide additional guidance as to the handling of cases which will be filed under the new rule as well as backlogged permanent labor certification cases. Employers in the Atlanta and Chicago regions requesting H-2A workers should simultaneously submit H-2A applications to their appropriate State Workforce Agency (SWA) and respective National Processing Center. These H-2A applications should no longer be submitted to ETA's Atlanta or Chicago Regional Offices. Employers in the Atlanta and Chicago regions requesting either permanent or H-2B workers should continue, until ETA publishes future guidance on this issue, to file permanent and H-2B applications with the appropriate SWA.