Special PERM Filing Window: 33-Day Grace for Shutdown Recruitments

(UNITED STATES) The U.S. Department of Labor has opened a 33-day grace period for employers to submit PERM applications that stalled when the federal government shut down in October 2025. The relief applies nationwide and takes immediate effect. It covers cases where recruitment steps or prevailing wage determinations expired while the government’s FLAG online filing system was unavailable.

Employers say the measure will prevent them from having to repeat costly job ads and start over. Foreign workers stand to avoid months of delay that could ripple through their immigration plans.

Scope and dates of the grace period

• The grace period applies to recruitment efforts and prevailing wage determinations that expired between October 1 and November 2, 2025—the exact dates FLAG was down during the shutdown.
• During this temporary window, employers can submit PERM applications through FLAG using recruitment or wage determinations that would normally be considered stale under standard timelines.
• By allowing filings with those expired steps, the agency signals it will not penalize employers for a lapse caused by a system they could not access.

How employers file during the grace period

• Companies should file in the normal way through the FLAG online filing system, even if recruitment or prevailing wage determinations technically fall outside the usual window.
• Expect to see warning messages inside FLAG during submission—particularly where recruitment is outside the regulatory 180-day filing period or a prevailing wage determination shows as expired.
• The Department of Labor has said those alerts are not blocking; users can still complete and submit their applications. In short, the warnings are a notice, not a stop sign.

Automatic extension and no special paperwork

• Officials made clear the extension is automatic—there is no separate form to file and no special request to make.
• This is important for employers racing to meet internal deadlines while supporting employees with pending green card sponsorships.

Practical impact and rationale

• The shutdown effectively froze steps that depend on FLAG, turning what should have been a routine filing month into an unexpected gap.
• For employers and workers who timed recruitment and filing schedules around October, the inability to access FLAG disrupted carefully planned timelines.
• By backstopping the lost month with a 33-calendar-day cushion, the Department is trying to reconnect those timelines without forcing employers to start from scratch.

The grace period removes the immediate risk that employers will have to redo months of legally required job advertising, which can add thousands of dollars in new costs and push filings into the next calendar year. (Analysis cited from VisaVerge.com)

What if a case is denied because of timing?

• If a PERM application is denied solely because its recruitment or prevailing wage determination expired between October 1 and November 2, 2025, employers may:
  1. File a request for reconsideration with the OFLC Certifying Officer.
  2. Explain that the case falls within the shutdown window.

• This reconsideration process gives employers a second chance to correct an outcome that conflicts with the temporary policy and helps keep workers’ cases moving.

Why timing matters in PERM cases

• Under normal conditions:
  • Employers must file within 180 days after completing recruitment.
  • Prevailing wage determinations carry their own validity periods.
• Missing those windows often means repeating recruitment, which can delay filings by months and affect downstream stages of employment-based green card cases.
• The Department’s action is a narrow exception tied directly to the shutdown’s impact on FLAG online filing—not a rewrite of existing rules.

URGENT: Action steps and documentation employers should take

• Employers are urged to move quickly. Filing within the 33-day grace period is critical—those who wait risk losing the protections when the window closes.
• The Department recommends keeping clear records of submissions during this time, including:
  • Dates of submissions
  • Screenshots of any FLAG warnings
  • Documents showing how the shutdown overlapped with recruitment and filing timelines

• That documentation could matter later in audits or reconsideration requests tied to the shutdown dates.

Technical and policy context

• The policy highlights how dependent employment-based immigration has become on digital systems. FLAG is the gateway for modern PERM processing, and when it goes down, everything stops.

• The temporary relief acknowledges that one month of downtime should not wipe out months of work.

• The Office of Foreign Labor Certification’s resources remain the authoritative reference point for program updates and filing guidance, including system access notices and public FAQs available through the U.S. Department of Labor: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/foreign-labor

Submitting Form ETA 9089 in FLAG

• PERM applications should continue to be submitted through the FLAG portal using the standard electronic process for Form ETA 9089.
• Form ETA 9089 is filed online in FLAG and is the foundation of most employment-based permanent residence cases based on labor certification.
• Official information about submitting ETA 9089 through FLAG is available on the government’s PERM process page: Form ETA 9089 in FLAG

Impact on workers and families

• Workers and families waiting on filings may feel relief, even if not directly involved in filing mechanics.
• Many employees on employer-sponsored tracks plan life events around filing windows—job changes, travel, and maintenance of temporary status.
• By honoring recruitment that would have expired during the outage, the government aims to keep those plans intact and limit knock-on effects that a forced restart would cause.

Limits of the relief

• The department has not signaled additional exceptions beyond the identified dates.
• The extension is strictly tied to the shutdown’s impact on FLAG online filing.
• Employers with unrelated delays earlier in the year are not covered by this action.

Final takeaway

• For those directly affected in October and early November: file now, document everything, and use the reconsideration process if a denial cites timing within the shutdown window.
• As with any time-limited policy, the clock is the real pressure point. Those who act within the window will benefit from the accommodation; those who do not may face the usual requirement to redo recruitment before refiling.