Visa Lawyer Blog
In the past several weeks we were following one of most fierce confrontations, between lawyers and the Department of Labor. First the DOL started auditing all the cases of the largest Immigration firm in the nation, Fragomen. Later, Fragomen sued the DOL, claiming various unfair practices.
This was all a source of concern for us immigration lawyers. If we can not help our clients anymore in filing for permanent residence (Green Cards), what else can we do? Well, the Department of Labor issued some specific guidelines as to what lawyer can and can not do when assisting employers filing under the PERM program. For example:
Attorneys and agents may receive resumes and applications of U.S. workers who respond to the employer’s recruitment efforts; however, they may not conduct any preliminary screening of applications before the employer does so, other than routine clerical or ministerial organizing of resumes which does not include any assessment of, or comments on, the qualifications of any applicants;
Attorneys and agents may not participate in the interviewing of U.S. worker applicants, unless the attorney or agent is the representative of the employer who routinely performs this function for positions for which labor certifications are not filed;
Where the Department finds evidence of potentially improper attorney, agent, or foreign worker involvement in considering U.S. worker applicants, the Department will audit, and may subsequently require supervised recruitment
Read the Memo here Download file