February 23, 2005

New labor regulation laws could affect any new international employees at CMU.

The U.S. Department of Labor introduced a new set of regulations entitled “Labor Certification for the Permanent Employment of Aliens in the United States.” The new regulations will go into effect for all new international employees March 28.

Changes to laws and fees for obtaining H-1B work visas will change March 8.

The new regulations will affect the advertising for positions at CMU, the hiring of international employees and the process of obtaining their Green Card to work; permanently in the United States.

“I don’t think that this will be a drastic change for employees or employers at CMU, it just takes a little bit more work and time in the hiring process,” said Robert Martin, associate vice provost of Faculty Personnel Services. “We just need to make sure we read over the new regulations and understand.”

The regulations are similar to the old ones, but the employer has to be able to justify the reason for hiring the employee, said Bassam Khoury, international student and scholar adviser in the Office of International Education.

“We don’t expect everyone to understand these new regulations,” Khoury said. “We want to inform that we need to be able to explain and have documentation to the U.S. Department of Labor and Immigration Office when we want to hire new people. The current employees here at CMU have nothing to worry about.”

The regulations will make the process of applying for permanent residency and employment a little more rigid. It is a way of making sure that U.S. citizens’ jobs are protected. It ensures that there is documentation that they are better for the jobs, based on skills, education and anything else that may make them more qualified.

Some of the restrictions that will have to be followed will include keeping documentation of any employment search, filing an electronic Labor Certification Application online within 180 days of recruitment and new fees of either $500 for filing for the visa or $1,000 for “premium processing,” meaning that if the employee is supposed to start work soon, they get their request for application processed within two weeks.

CMU officials will get a better sense of the new 90-page labor regulations after meeting immigration law experts from Detroit on Monday.

“The university policy on hiring practices will not change due to the new regulations,” Khoury said.

Source : http://www.cm-life.com/