The Department of Labor has issued proposed regulations and is required by law to provide a period of time for interested parties to comment on the proposed regulations. The Department of Labor will consider the comments in deciding if and when they enact the regulations. At issue are the following: (1) the Department of Labor is proposing to eliminate substitutions of employees on labor certification applications; (2) the Department of Labor is proposing to require that employers file immigrant petitions with USCIS within 45 days of approval of the labor certification or the application will expire; (3) the Department of Labor is proposing to require that employers rather than the employee pay all costs of the labor certification process; and (4) the Department of Labor is proposing to impose new punishments for errors on the application, whether or not the error is intentional or even meaningful.

The Department of Labor is accepting comments to the proposed rule until April 14, 2006. The American Immigration Lawyers Association has provided a sample letter and an easy-to-use web based format for companies to submit comments to the Department of Labor, which is available at http://capwiz.com/aila2/issues/alert/?alertid=8652851. If the proposed regulations will have an impact on your applications, take a few minutes to send comments to the Department of Labor using AILA's web-based format.