Pabian Law Clients,
Apologies for a late Friday Client Alert, but the government issued a wonderful treat today, despite us initially worrying that it was a trick. (Sorry, I couldn’t help the awful Halloween pun). Fun fact – my oldest son, Ryder, is dressing up as a middle aged dad and wearing all of my clothes, so I guess I need to embrace my use of horrible puns. Anyway, on to today’s news…
Today, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced that despite the ongoing government shutdown, it would resume processing Prevailing Wage Determination (PWD) applications, as well as Applications for Temporary Employment Certification (ETA applications) (the application that we aim to file 90 days before your start date). As a reminder, we need the Prevailing Wages back from the DOL in order to file the ETA applications. You can find today’s announcement from the DOL here.
Today’s news is a HUGE relief, as it paves the way for us to keep all of your applications on track, regardless of whether you are a summer or winter-season employer!
At about 4:58pm EST, just a few minutes ago, the U.S. Department of Labor’s website came back online and we immediately began to file Prevailing Wage Determination Applications. Additionally, we are working late on this Halloween holiday as well as through the weekend to draft, review, and file applications. We are also moving forward with the late winter-season filings. If you owe us any information or documentation, please send it ASAP as we are no longer stuck due to the government shutdown. In short, we can move forward with all H-2B visa petitions and we are working hard to catch everyone up.
Please note that you are going to see a bit of a delay in my office responding to emails over the weekend and early next week as we turn our primary focus to catching all of your applications up to where we want them to be at this time of year. If anything is urgent, we kindly ask that you call our office at (617) 939-9444. Otherwise, we will reply as soon as we can. Again, our focus needs to be on getting all of the affected applications filed as quickly and as accurately as possible.
A massive thank you to the vast majority of you who are allowing us to move forward quickly. I am so proud of everyone involved and am so grateful to my colleagues for how hard they are working to accomplish our shared goals.
Wishing everyone a very happy and safe Halloween and a relaxing weekend!
Best regards,
Keith and the Pabian Law Team