The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has signaled its intent to launch the most significant overhaul of the PERM labor certification process in more than 20 years, according to the agency’s newly published regulatory agenda. PERM is the first step in most employment-based green card cases in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories, requiring employers to test the U.S. labor market before sponsoring a foreign worker for permanent residence.
DOL notes that PERM regulations have not been comprehensively updated since 2004 — an era when employers still relied heavily on newspaper advertisements and traditional job postings. Since then, recruitment has shifted to online platforms, employer career portals, LinkedIn, job boards, internal talent systems, and automated screening tools. The planned rulemaking aims to modernize the labor market test to reflect these changes.
According to the agenda, the department is expected to revise the minimum standards for recruiting qualified U.S. workers, strengthen rules addressing employer layoffs, and enhance compliance with non-discrimination requirements in hiring. Immigration attorneys caution that stricter recruitment and documentation standards could add complexity and lengthen an already lengthy process.
It is important to understand what this stage does — and does not — mean. As of early July 2026, the initiative remains at the proposed-rule/regulatory-agenda stage. No draft regulatory text has been released, and current PERM filing rules remain fully in effect for both pending and new cases. There is no new effective date, and nothing about pending applications changes today.
Equally important, the overhaul would not change annual green card numbers, would not eliminate per-country limits, and would not move Visa Bulletin priority dates forward. In other words, it will not shorten the multi-year waits faced by many Indian and Chinese EB-2 and EB-3 applicants. Its primary effect would be on how the labor certification step is conducted, not on visa availability.
Employers and sponsored workers should watch for a formal notice of proposed rulemaking, which will open a public comment period and provide concrete details. Until then, applicants should continue filing under existing rules and plan ahead for the possibility of stricter recruitment obligations in future cases.
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