The Basics of the Labor Condition Application
In very general terms, the Labor Condition Application ("LCA") is a prerequisite process that must be completed and certified by the Department of Labor prior to the submission of a petition to classify a worker in H-1B, H-1B1 or E-3 status. For more on the E-3 classification, see here.
The LCA is basically an attestation by an employer seeing to hire a worker in one of the statuses listed above that four basic conditions of employment have been met: 1) the employer is paying the nonimmigrant at least the higher of the actual wage paid by the employer to others in the same occupation with similar experience and qualifications or the prevailing wage for the occupation in the geographical area of the worksite; 2) that the employment of the nonimmigrant will not adversely affect the working conditions of similarly employed workers; 3) that there is no strike, lockout or work stoppage in the occupation for which the nonimmigrant is being hired; and, 4) that notice of the hiring of the nonimmigrant has been provided.
Recently, the DOL centralized the LCA process through the iCert web portal. The relatively new on-line submission process is governed by a "first-in-first-out" rule. However, processing times have varied. Based on a recent experience, it appears that LCA applications are taking 7 days to process.
