Employment certification is required for US employers to hire non-immigrant foreign employees on a permanent basis. The employer must prove the job cannot be done by a US citizen. The process is controversial, but protects US jobs. The job description must follow strict guidelines set by the US Department of Labor. The procedure was revised in 1998.
Employment certification is a required process for United States (US) employers who wish to hire non-immigrant foreign employees on a permanent basis. This process is often the first step in setting up the employer to sponsor the worker so he can get a green card and work legally in the country. Sponsoring and achieving this status is a complex process that normally takes years to complete.
To obtain a labor certification, the employer is typically required to demonstrate that the job offered to the foreign employee cannot be performed by any locally available U.S. citizen. This is usually a difficult claim to prove. If a US citizen in the area is available with even minimal qualifications for the position, the application, by law, must be denied.
The foreign worker can still work according to the terms of the agreement which applies to temporary work until the expiry of this contract. The worker can repeatedly re-apply for permanent status. This labor certification practice is generally seen as protective of U.S. workers, but is often seen as a tedious procedure by many employers.
This practice, like many regulations relating to immigration and foreign workers, is generally controversial. Proponents of the process say it protects jobs that can be satisfactorily performed by US citizens from being filled by foreign workers who might accept a lower wage for the job. Those who oppose the practice of labor certification argue that employers will fund the program to meet their needs. Many critics argue that this can be achieved by the employer tailoring the job description to the foreign employee’s qualifications, thus making the job voidable by anyone else.
Actually, the latter option is more difficult than it seems. The employer’s job description must follow the strict guidelines mandated by the Code of Federal Regulations as set forth by the US Department of Labor which clearly outline what requirements are suitable for which jobs. If the employer manages to fulfill these conditions in the job description, he still has to prove that no other highly comparable job has been awarded to less qualified candidates.
The original job certification guidelines required an employer to prepare an acceptable job description before the job was publicly offered. This procedure was revised in 1998. At that time, the order of requirements was virtually reversed to require the employer to first recruit for the position and then make a statement as to why no US worker was qualified for the available position.
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