(UNITED STATES) — The U.S. Department of Labor placed a rewrite of the PERM Labor Certification system on its July 2026 Unified Agenda, signaling a broad revision of recruitment rules that employers use to sponsor foreign workers for permanent jobs in the United States.

DOL said in the agenda entry for “Modernizing the Labor Market Test” under RIN 1205-AC29 that it plans to “modernize aspects of the permanent labor certification process (PERM).” The reason cited is that current regulations “have not been comprehensively modified since 2004.” The agency said it wants to update standards to reflect “advancements in technology” and “changes that have altered industry practices.”

The agenda item arrives alongside a second DOL rulemaking already in motion. On March 26, 2026, the department issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to raise minimum wages for PERM, H-1B, and E-3 cases. This ties recruitment changes to a separate effort to lift the wage floor for foreign labor.

USCIS added another layer on May 22, 2026, when it issued policy memo PM-602-0199 on adjustment of status. The agency said adjustment is an “extraordinary form of relief.”

In that memo, USCIS said: “We’re returning to the original intent of the law to ensure aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly. From now on, an alien who is in the U.S. temporarily and wants a Green Card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances.”

Taken together, the DOL and USCIS actions point to tighter standards at several points in the employment-based immigration process. This spans from the labor market test that precedes a PERM filing to the final steps many workers use to seek permanent residence.

The PERM program sits at the center of that system. Employers generally use it to show that hiring a foreign worker for a permanent position will not displace available U.S. workers. The rules have long relied on recruitment steps built around a labor market that predates widespread digital hiring.

DOL’s agenda entry suggests that framework is about to change. The department intends to rewrite recruitment requirements, with digital-first standards expected to replace older mandates such as Sunday newspaper advertisements. It will also add more stringent requirements for reporting layoffs.

The wage proposal published in March would move each of the four prevailing wage levels to a higher percentile. Under the rule, Level I would rise from the 17th percentile to the 34th percentile, a shift described as an approximate 33% increase.

Level II would move from the 34th percentile to the 52nd percentile. Level III would rise from the 50th percentile to the 70th percentile, and Level IV would move from the 67th percentile to the 88th percentile.

DOL framed that proposal as a wage protection measure. The department said: “By seeking to implement these proposed changes, the Department of Labor aspires to improve the correlation between wages paid to foreign workers and those paid to American workers with similar skills and qualifications, reduce the economic incentives to underpay foreign workers and undermine the American workforce, and promote fair competition in the American labor market.”

That wage rule reaches beyond PERM. It also covers H-1B and E-3 programs, widening the effect across employers that hire temporary professional workers as well as those pursuing permanent sponsorship.

Another change already took effect for a narrow but visible group of cases. Under Executive Order 14286, issued in April 2025, DOL and USCIS now require proof of English proficiency for all PERM certifications involving commercial vehicle operators, effective June 15, 2026.

The emphasis on layoffs and non-discriminatory recruitment points to more scrutiny of employer practices during the labor certification process. Companies that have recently reduced their domestic workforce could face closer review if DOL turns those concepts into stricter audit triggers or documentation rules.

The age of the current framework helps explain why the agency is moving now. The PERM system has not been comprehensively modified since 2004, leaving core recruitment rules in place through years of change in how employers advertise jobs, screen applicants, and document hiring efforts.

Those updates carry a direct cost. Employers face an estimated average wage cost increase of $20,000 per sponsored employee under the proposed March 2026 wage rules. This figure could weigh more heavily on smaller businesses and startups than on larger employers with deeper salary budgets.

Processing times already stretch the system before any new rule takes effect. As of July 2026, average PERM processing times for Analyst Review exceed 400 calendar days, and audits add another 290 days.

Long waits matter because PERM is often the first step in a chain of filings. A delayed labor certification can push back an employer’s ability to file an immigrant petition. It can also leave a worker’s immigration planning tied to a process that already runs on a slow clock.

USCIS is also tightening paperwork review in a way that raises the stakes for technical mistakes. The new USCIS Signature Rule takes effect on July 10, 2026. It allows the agency to deny applications for minor signature technicalities without an opportunity to correct them, increasing denial risk for PERM-based Form I-140 petitions.

That means employers and attorneys are confronting several shifts at once: a possible rewrite of the labor market test, higher proposed wage floors, a stricter adjustment policy from USCIS, and a signature standard that leaves less room to cure filing errors after submission.

DOL has not yet issued the labor market test proposal itself, but the agenda entry sets out the agency’s direction. Employers watching the July 2026 Unified Agenda now have two concrete markers from DOL: the stated plan to modernize PERM recruitment and the wage proposal already published in the Federal Register.

The official record for those moves appears in DOL’s Foreign Labor Certification announcements, the Unified Agenda entry for RIN 1205-AC29, and the March 2026 prevailing wage NPRM. USCIS posted its policy material through its newsroom.

Employers that depend on permanent sponsorship now face a system in which the old assumptions look less stable. Recruitment may shift further toward digital evidence, wages may rise across every prevailing wage level, and filing errors that once invited correction may instead bring an immediate denial.