Effective January 1, 2010, the system for requesting a prevailing wage determination has been centralized to the Department of Labor’s National Prevailing Wage and Helpdesk Center.  The NPWHC now handles all requests for prevailing wage determinations previously handled by each individual state’s workforce agency.  Under the new centralized system, prevailing wage requests are to be mailed to the NPWHC office in Washington, DC (although an electronic filing system will go into effect on January 21).  Determinations will be returned by mail, unless an email address is provided.  It is expected that determinations will take a minimum of 60 days.

What does this development mean for H-1B and green card processing? While a prevailing wage determination is not required for H-1B petitions, if a determination is needed, the request could take more than 60 days.  Employers should be prepared for significant delays in H-1B processing for cases needing prevailing wage determinations.  For the PERM Labor Certification process, a prevailing wage determination is required before filing.  In some cases, it is recommended that an employer obtain a prevailing wage determination before starting recruitment for a Labor Certification application.  For those cases, the pre-filing phase for the Labor Certification application will be extended from 60 days to possibly more than 120 days.

Although the full impact of this change is yet to be seen, one thing is certain – delays are to be expected.