The Department of Labor has taken the first concrete step toward the biggest rewrite of the PERM labor certification process in more than 20 years. On September 14, 2026, DOL’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) sent its proposed rule — Modernizing the Labor Market Test and Improving Protections for U.S. Workers in the PERM Immigrant Visa Program, RIN 1205-AC29 — to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) at the White House Office of Management and Budget for review.
This matters because it moves the overhaul out of the realm of intentions. When DOL first flagged this project in its spring 2026 regulatory agenda, there was no draft text and no timetable anyone could rely on. OIRA review is the last internal gate before a proposed rule can be published in the Federal Register and opened for public comment. In other words, actual regulatory text now exists — OIRA is reading it — even though the public cannot see it yet.
According to the Unified Agenda entry, the rule targets 20 CFR Part 656 and rests on INA authority at 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(5)(A) and 1182(p)(1). DOL describes its aim as modernizing “the standards and procedures by which the Department receives and reviews employers’ applications for permanent labor certification,” specifically by “improving the minimum standards for recruiting qualified U.S. workers, strengthening safeguards for U.S. Workers impacted by layoffs, and enhancing employer compliance with program requirements related to non-discriminatory recruitment and hiring practices, and record retention requirements.” DOL notes the PERM rules have not been comprehensively updated since 2004 — before online job boards, LinkedIn, applicant tracking systems and automated screening became the norm. The agency contact of record is Brian Pasternak, Administrator of the Office of Foreign Labor Certification.
The filing is also running behind: the Unified Agenda had penciled in an NPRM for July 2026, so the rule reached OIRA roughly two months late. OIRA review can take anywhere from a few weeks to well over the nominal 90-day period, and the agency can revise the text substantially during review.
What changes for applicants today: nothing. The proposed text has not been published, no comment period has opened, and every pending and new PERM case continues under the existing 2004-era rules. Nor would this rule touch visa availability — it does not change annual green card numbers, per-country caps, or Visa Bulletin priority dates, so it will not shorten the multi-year EB-2 and EB-3 waits facing Indian and Chinese applicants. What it would change is how the labor market test itself is run: stricter recruitment minimums, tighter layoff rules, and heavier documentation and record-retention burdens are all on DOL’s stated list.
Employers and sponsored workers should watch for publication of the NPRM in the Federal Register, which will trigger a public comment period — typically 30 to 60 days — and reveal the specifics for the first time. Anyone weighing PERM against a self-petition route may want to factor in that the employer-sponsored path is heading toward a more demanding recruitment standard, while the EB-2 National Interest Waiver bypasses labor certification altogether.
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Source: Primary source sweep - Reginfo.gov (OIRA pending EO 12866 review) + DOL Unified Agenda