Rule Updates: Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Aliens in the United States
You may remember how this rule increased the Wage Level by close to 40% overnight for H1B and PERM process?
Intermediate Rule went into effect on Oct 8th, 2020.
Later Federal Judge blocked this rule on Dec 1, 2020.
The same rule was published into Federal Register on Jan 14, 2021, with an effective date of March 15, 2021, with a phased implementation.
In this page, we will track the updates to this Rule.
H1B & PERM Wage Rule Timeline
- Oct 8, 2020 – DOL published Interim Final rule that changes wage level 1 to 4 rates based on OES data. The rule was effective on the date of publication.
- Dec 1, 2020 – U.S. District Court for Northern California blocked implementation of both rules (DOL and DHS) from being implemented. Chamber of Commerce vs. DHS
- Dec 3, 2020 – U.S. Court for the District of New Jersey blocked the DOL Rule’s implementation. ITServe Alliance vs. Scalia Case
- Dec 14, 2020 – U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted plaintiffs to reissue new wage requests for those impacted with this rule.
- Jan 14, 2021 – Final Rule published (the same rule that was blocked) with an effective March 15, 2021.
- Jan 20, 2021 – President Biden Administration issued a memo to freeze all pending rule that is yet to go into effect or not yet published.
- On Feb 1, 2021 – DOL published a rule to notify the delay in implementing this rule with 15 days comment period to move the effective date from March 15 to May 15, 2021.
This rule impacts both new H1B Visa applicants, Employment-Based Green Card applicants who require PERM, and the employers if implemented.
The most important question – What will Biden Administration do? Would they implement this rule or start the process to revoke this rule?
We have to wait and see how this Rule will be handled.
