The premier PERM Advertising Agency
We take the hassle out of PERM Advertising
By: Jeff Wunsch and Angela Ladisla
The Department of Labor periodically requests job ads to be posted using specific media outlets, typically a series of online job boards and trade journals. These cases are referred to as ‘supervised recruitment.’ The DOL provides specific instructions regarding the ad text, the media outlets to be used, and the duration/length of the ads.
Supervised recruitment is more thorough and requires more attention/monitoring than the standard recruitment process. This requires a draft advertisement of the job opportunity submitted to the DOL within 30 days of posting. We say it is crucial that you must be attentive to every detail (especially the requested start date/posting period) and work closely with the Park Project Manager handling the case.
Park will need a copy of the DOL’s instructions to ensure complete compliance can been met. Park can accommodate preferences if the advertisements should start on a specific date or if you need to start the ad postings as soon as possible. Generally speaking, we schedule ads so all screenshots are captured during business/weekdays and so corrections can be made promptly if needed.
Park has experience with a variety of online job boards/trade journals, and we do everything possible to ensure we can set up posts in compliance with the DOL’s instructions. Day 1 screenshots are provided as soon as each post is set up on the day that it goes live to applicants. It is critical that your firm reviews the screenshots the same day to help ensure all details are correct and allow Park to make immediate adjustments when needed. All online posts must have a 30-day duration for supervised recruitment and that includes the first day of posting. Middle screenshots will be taken on the 15th day, and final screenshots will be taken on the 30th day. All screenshots will be provided at the end of the post terms.
Some examples of sites Park has seen the DOL require ads to be posted in are CareerBuilder, Dice, iHireEngineering, Monster, NASPA, and even some job boards hosted by large newspapers such as the Boston Globe. One of the biggest challenges Park has overcome is that some job boards/trade journals are not user friendly, and Park needed to develop a relationship with the vendor to do what was required to comply with the DOL’s instructions.
Some sites we have posted on do not allow online applications to be disabled, even though the text specifies candidates should apply directly to the company through mail or email. When that happened, Park collected all the resumes received after the posting period and sent them to the company contact. Other sites had problems with pulling resumes received, and Park corrected the situation by obtaining an affidavit from the boards/journals attesting to the ad text and the length of time it was posted.
Supervised Recruitment can be challenging for many of our clients, but Park is experienced and professional in handling anything that comes our way.
By: Lauren Ray
Anything that interrupts recruitment can be a headache. Our team does their best to lessen the impact of unexpected situations like SWA outages. Through this post, you’ll get a glimpse of how Park deals with these situations.
What are SWAs?
State Workforce Agency websites are run by each individual state. Job openings are posted and advertised on these platforms. As a part of the PERM process, it is required by the DOL to post on a SWA site for a minimum of 30 days.
What does it mean when a SWA site is down?
When a SWA site goes down, it means that it is inaccessible. Sometimes the site is down for maintenance, other times they’ve gone down due to cyber attacks or other technological issues. Due to this, the Park team is not able to log in to post and/or take screenshots of ads.
How does Park handle these situations?
Park notifies clients as soon as the team realizes that the site will impact case processes. The Park team tries to gather as much information as possible so that clients can make an informed decision. When a site is down for maintenance, there can be a notification ahead of time that the team uses to warn affected clients. Other times, there is no warning, like in the case of the WorkSource outage from Summer 2022 due to a cyber attack at a third party company. In these cases, in addition to reaching out to clients, Park checks the site daily to verify if it is back up. The team also contacts the state agencies for more information. It is important to have the most up-to-date information to communicate with our clients. Once the site is back up and accessible again, Park puts together solutions to present to each client.
What solutions has Park presented to clients?
In recent years, there have been a number of SWA site issues that Park has learned from. There is a general formula to make sure clients get the information they need after a SWA site goes down:
SWA’s that have been posted:
Clients can choose to:
1. Extend the ad duration to accommodate the days the site was down.
2. Proceed as if the site was never down (take screenshots as scheduled)
SWA’s that have not been posted:
– Once the site is back up, our clients are notified and the site is posted as normal.
SWA’s on hold:
1. If the posting is live after the outage, the end date of the posting will be extended, and the day 1 screenshot will be sent to the client.
2. If the posting is not live, clients will be informed and the posting will be checked daily.
SWAs missing the ending screenshot:
If an ad expired during the outage, clients can choose to:
1. Repost for the full 30-day duration
2. Repost for the time the site was down to make up for the missed days
3. Tell us how they’d like to proceed
Each situation is unique, so Park adapts as needed. Some examples of how the Park team handled past SWA site situations are below:
Example 1:
The first time Park experienced an extended SWA outage was back in 2022, when a cyber-attack took down many sites like California’s and Texas’. The team reached out to various contacts at SWA sites to get information before it was announced to the general public. Clients also came to Park with both questions and information. At the time, everyone was learning how to deal with the situation together. After a few weeks, when the first sites started to come back up, the team got together to decide the best methods to offer clients to save any SWA ads. Initially, clients were offered options to repost ads for the full duration of the ad or partial duration, depending on the length of time the site was down. Park also asked client to provide any feedback they had so that the team could accommodate any requests. These requests were used to influence our procedures surrounding future outages.
Example 2:
The New York/Kentucky/New Jersey/Puerto Rico SWA sites went down for an unknown reason back in October 2023, and no one had access to the site for a week and a half. When the sites came back up, every account was required to reset their password to gain access to the site. While Park waited for updated passwords, the team took screenshots from the job seekers view for ads that were still live. Unfortunately, some ads were removed from the site or expired during the outage. Due to this, the team worked with to repost the ads for the missing durations or start over.
Example 3:
The Texas SWA site was down for maintenance in April 2024. Since there was a notification on their site ahead of time, Park was able to prepare in advance. The team was able to make sure most ads did not expire in the middle of the outage. Clients were advised of their options to either extend the ads or wait to post after the outage. Park continued to monitor the situation during the scheduled time frame. As soon as the site was back up, we let clients know and continued on with the ads as normal.
If you’re interested in more information on how Park can make your next recruitment a walk in the Park, reach out to [email protected]
By: Rachel von Habsburg
Wage transparency is legislation introduced at the state level to ensure fair practice of sharing employee compensation. Posting salaries and how pay decisions are made ensures workplace equity among potential applicants and current employees. The language required varies from state to state, and Park stays up to date on any new pay transparency laws that are enacted.
California is a great example of a state that currently enforces wage transparency for open job postings to the public. They require that employers with 15 or more employees must include a pay scale for job postings.
Park quality checks all the ad text received by our clients to ensure that they are compliant with these regulations. For example, if Park receives the following ad text:
ABC Inc. seeks a Sr. Engineer in San Francisco, CA. Follow safety rules for all projects; pre-task planning; develop scope of work; prepare estimates, specifications. 50% in-state travel required. Apply online via www.abcapplyjobs.com Ref#5678
Since this advertisement is in the state of California, Park will reach out to confirm whether the salary range needs to be included prior to posting the ads. If this company does indeed employ more than 15 people, we will ask for the salary range and include it in the ad text like this:
ABC Inc. seeks a Sr. Engineer in San Francisco, CA. Follow safety rules for all projects; pre-task planning; develop scope of work; prepare estimates, specifications. 50% in-state travel required. Salary $150,000-$175,000 per year. Apply online via www.abcapplyjobs.com Ref#5678
Some states have regulations specific to the city the ad is to be posted in. For example, Jersey City, NJ requires wage transparency, whereas other cities in the state do not. If Park receives ad text in Hoboken, NJ, we would not have to reach out to verify salary because it is not a statewide requirement.
We have successfully helped our clients traverse advertising in a variety of locations and openly communicate throughout the process to get the best results. If you have any questions or would like a quote, feel free to reach out to [email protected] for your next case.
By: Abigail Heffner
When Park advises newspapers that an advertisement is ready and approved to run, we send them the approved proof and exact wording of the ad needing to run. We also require that newspaper vendors send us a firm confirmation that the ad has been placed. However, vendor actions are beyond our control, and unfortunately, there are times when an ad runs incorrectly or not at all. This can occur for a few reasons. Sometimes, there is simply human error, and newspaper contacts forget to submit the ad for placement on their end. Other times, there is a separate layout department that makes unapproved changes to make the ad fit on the page.
If the ad didn’t run at all, we ask the vendor to place the ad as soon as possible. If the ad ran incorrectly or with a change, Park will contact you to see how you would like to proceed. Sometimes, the change is small enough that it doesn’t affect the wording and wouldn’t need reran.
For example, Park recently had a newspaper in California run a job code incorrectly. The paper provided a proof with the correct job code of #100 at the time of quote, but the paper printed it as #1009 for the first Sunday run. On Monday morning, we reviewed the etear and saw the discrepancy. We contacted the vendor that same morning. Park had the vendor rerun the ad correctly in their next edition and added a 3rd Sunday run at no additional charge to make up for the incorrect text running the first Sunday. Park knows swift action is needed to keep PERM schedules on course and prevent further delays, so we also advised our client of the issue that same day and provided them with the new run dates.
There are rare occasions where after an error is made on their end, the newspaper becomes unresponsive or unwilling to run the ad correctly. In these situations, we will find another vendor to run the ad. No matter the situation, Park will ensure your ad running correctly is our utmost priority.
In addition to print errors, there are other instances when a change is made or an error is caught on an online advertisement (SWAs, Online Job Boards, Online Trade Journals, or Sunday Online posts). In these cases, we will advise you of the error and ask how you would like to proceed. Most of the time, the decision is to correct the error and restart the posting duration. However, there are times where if the error is minor we can either keep the post as is or correct the change and move on without restarting the post duration.
PERM Advertising relies on the cooperation of a multitude of different vendors, and there are times when issues arise as vendors don’t always understand the many legal requirements. However, Park works for you to ensure that advertisements run as smoothly as possible, even when there are errors made by print and online vendors.
For PERM certification cases, you need to know where to place your job advertisement. If you do not place your job advertisement in the right venue, then the USCIS may outright reject your case. Getting a green card is hard enough without worrying about making small mistakes in placement.
So what is required by the USCIS?
TWO SUNDAY ADS
Your job advertisement must be placed in the Sunday edition of the major newspaper in your area. Why Sunday? That is the largest circulation date of the week. To satisfy the USCIS requirements, your job advertisement needs to read as many people as possible, and the way to do that is through the Sunday news. The New York Times has over a million copies in circulation on Sundays, almost double that of their daily papers! The USCIS figures that if another qualified applicant cannot be found through advertising in these Sunday papers, then you truly will be the right person for the job. These ads must run in two consecutive weeks!
STATE WORKFORCE AGENCY
Each state has a government sponsored job board for job seekers. The USCIS requires that you post your job advertisement on this SWA website. Unlike secondary requirements which do not specify how long a job must be posted, the SWA is required to be posted for 30 days times. Evidence of this length of time via screenshots is necessary for the USCIS.
WORKPLACE POSTING NOTICE
At your workplace, you must place your job opening. This is to show the position to other people at your company already employed who may be qualified. Maybe you do not even need to reach out to a foreign employee when you have a naturalized US citizen already at your workplace to do the job. If you do not, this will show that you tried your due diligence to employ a US citizen for your position. This must be in a conspicuous area.
SECONDARY OPTIONS
For professional positions ,there are secondary job advertisement options that must be chosen by the company. We will cover that in our next blog.
If you want immediate assistance with your job advertisement you can email us at [email protected], call us at (212) 581-8877, or get a FREE QUOTE online!
Obtaining PERM labor certification from the Department of Labor can be a stressful process. The prevailing wage determination can take months, and even a small typo in your 9089 can result in a time-sucking audit or outright denial.
Among the process’ nuances, perhaps the most aggravating element of PERM is the advertising. Your client intends to hire a specific foreign national, yet you have to jump through hoops to ensure they’re not depriving US workers of potential jobs. In addition to placing a job order with the right State Workforce Agency (SWA), you’re required to place an ad in two Sunday editions of a high-circulation local newspaper, post an internal ad on the company’s premises, and utilize three additional recruitment methods to meet the necessary PERM requirements.
You also have to be punctilious with your ad copy, avoiding the omission of any crucial details (business name, wages, job description) that will sink your application.
On top of all that, you need to coordinate with the SWA, employer, and media sources to compile sufficient evidence that you advertised the right information in the right location for the right amount of time. It’s a high-stakes logistical hurdle that can swallow your time and energy, especially if you’re an immigration attorney with a diverse portfolio of clients.
Enter Park Advertising.
Park Advertising specializes in strategically placing PERM advertisements guaranteed to meet DOL approval. With over 10 years of experience, our team has helped thousands of clients successfully obtain their green cards. We complete/put in the time-consuming, detail-oriented legwork so you don’t have to think about it.
More importantly, we do it quickly and accurately. Recently, an attorney came to Park with a PERM case in small-town Springfield, MO. She had never placed an ad in this region, and didn’t understand the media landscape. Within six hours, Park identified a high-circulation local newspaper, as well as a local radio program, and sent the attorney a full ad quote for:
1. Two Sundays in the local paper
2. 30 days online
3. 30 days on the Missouri SWA website
4. Two radio spots
Park even caught a crucial typo. The ads listed “Springfield, MA” as the job location instead of “Springfield, MO”, which the Park team immediately corrected.
And when it comes to billing, we’ve even been known to act as the middleman between your client and the media sources, taking care of the paperwork and saving you, the attorney, the additional hassle.
The PERM process is long and complex. Sometimes it feels like a high wire act, where one misstep can cost you months of delays and thousands of dollars. Every word requires careful crafting and documenting in order to comply with DOL and USCIS standards. With Park Advertising, you can be sure that your ads will be accurate, delivered on time, and 9089-ready.
H-1B season is on the horizon, and the applications are piling up. Save yourself some time, energy, and stress, and contact Park Advertising today to discuss your next PERM advertising case.
In order to help stop counterfitting, the USCIS is going to redesign the Permanent Resident Card. If you are successful in your application for permanent residency, here are some new changes that your card may feature.
Changes to Permanent Resident Cards
According to the USCIS, the new Permanent Resident Cards will feature the following:
- “Display the individual’s photos on both sides;
- Show a unique graphic image and color palette:
- Green Cards will have an image of the Statue of Liberty and a predominately green palette;
- EAD cards will have an image of a bald eagle and a predominately red palette;
- Have embedded holographic images; and
- No longer display the individual’s signature.”
These new changes come into effect soon. The USCIS says that they will use their old card stock before issuing the new design. More information about the resign can be read here.
Still in the Application Process?
Has your employer followed all the USCIS regulations regarding advertising? If you would like more assistance, please contact us as parkadvertising.com for a free quote.
Why do I need a PERM Advertising Agency?
I’m sure that sometimes you look at your case file and think “I’m sure I can do this on my own.” After all, DIY is becoming ingrained into our society. You may look at the requirements and think that you can easily post some ads with your local paper, find a job site, and figure out the difficulty that is SWA.
Not so fast!
One benefit of having a PERM Advertising Agency like Park Advertising is that we know the rules and regulations. And there are a lot. If any newspaper ad, online ad, or SWA has a simple typo, misspelling, or wrong location listed, this can hold up or even completely ruin your PERM application. Simple mistakes like this can not only cost you your green card, but it can cost thousands (you read that right) of dollars to fix. Sometimes costly errors occur, and since we know the newspaper reps, we are more likely to cut a fair deal in order to ensure that the errors made are fixed in a timely manner.
SWA
Since the State Job Order at the State Workforce Agency is a requirement for your PERM case, making sure that you have the minimum of 30 days marked is crucial. Because there are 50 states, there are 50 SWA sites to navigate through. Unfortunately, they can be pretty confusing, and if certain boxes are not checked or fields filled in, the entire SWA campaign may not count. Since we post SWA ads every day, we know what is required in each state, so that you can rest assured that your SWA will have all the necessary fields. We are also diligent with taking the required electronic screenshots of the advertisement at the first and 30th day mark, which will be your evidence that your job was posted.
Newspaper Prices
Depending on the location your job is located, the newspaper ad prices can be extremely high. This is especially true in the Silicon Valley area. Thanks to our relationships with newspaper reps around the country, we are able to keep the price down as much as possible, so that you will not only receive a fair price but also excellent service from Park Advertising.
Radio Spots
If you want to advertise in the radio, it can be even more difficult to book a spot! You have to not only have ad copy utilized for the radio, but you need to have an affidavit set up for the radio reps to sign. This process can be time consuming and confusing. Some radio stations are owned by big conglomerates, so in order to buy an advertising spot, it can require making multiple phone calls around the country to find the rep for your local station. Having an established PERM Advertising Agency like Park Advertising will take the hassle out of this process. We know how to streamline the process to get your ad up fast an efficiently, as well as know how to get the proper affidavit signed by these reps for your evidence for the USCIS.
Still want to DIY?
It’s a lot to worry about. There are a lot of small errors that could happen in the process, especially if you have no experience in the PERM advertising process. Having an experienced PERM advertising agency like Park Advertising in your corner will assure that your PERM application will be filed with no errors and with all the evidence required by the USCIS.
For more information, please contact us.
Image used under CC BY 2.0.
Naturalization Ceremony Grand Canyon by Grand Canyon National Park https://flic.kr/p/8DLpFL
PERM Certification
PERM Certification can be confusing, so let’s look at the basics. The US Department of Labor grants labor certifications to foreign nationals with a process called Program Electronic Review Management, or PERM. This is called the employment-based immigrant visa, or “Green Card”.
The task of getting PERM Certification is employer’s responsibility. First, the employer must be able to prove that they cannot find qualified American candidates. They have to prove to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that they are not able to find any qualified American workers. They have to find that no American workers are able, willing, qualified, or available to accept the job. This also takes into account the prevailing wage rate for that job in the specific area of employment.
The petitioning company must also be able to prove that there will be no adverse effect on the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S citizens. A part of meeting these requirements are placing job advertisements in major Sunday edition newspapers, state work force job posts, and more.
REQUIRED ADVERTISING FOR PERM CERTIFICATION
The petitioning company must fulfill certain prerequisites, such as placing several advertisements in the area of intended employment. The advertisements test the market to see if an American citizen is fit for the job, and if a U.S. citizen or permanent resident is not found, the petitioning company can then submit a PERM certification application.
Once all of the necessary documents have been submitted to the US Department of Labor, your company will submit a petition related to the PERM certification. You must submit your candidate’s application to the USCIS before its expiration date, which is 180 days after its issuance.
Getting PERM certification is a difficult and time-sensitive undertaking, but it doesn’t have to be! Your options may include seeking an advertising agency that specializes in PERM cases. It’s easy to miss USCIS regulations, as the regulations are quite strict. This is why an experienced ad agency may be right for you.
PARK ADVERTISING: THE PREMIER PERM ADVERTISING AGENCY
Park Advertising works with various companies, law firms and immigration-based attorneys across the country in acquiring PERM certification. We know all the DOL regulations and place PERM ads nationwide.
If you would like like more information on our services, please email us at [email protected], call us at (212) 581-8877. You can also request a free quote online!
One of the prerequisites of PERM advertising is knowing the prevailing wage rate for green card petitioners in the area where the job will be performed. This particular information differs among states, so firms must be aware of the differences between states. Because each state’s Department of Labor is responsible for determining this number, the sources vary.
Therefore, for attorneys and immigration-based law firms that deal with PERM advertising, it is important to know which states have the highest prevailing wage rate. They also must know what type of jobs is on demand in these states. Based on a report released in 2016 by MyVisaJobs.com, the top 5 states that had the highest prevailing wage for green card petitioners in 2015 were Wyoming, South Dakota, Maine, North Dakota, and West Virginia.
Wyoming
With an average salary of over $148,000, the state of Wyoming takes first place for having the highest prevailing wage rate in 2015. However, the majority of the green card petitions coming from the state are for teachers and jobs related and involved in the field of medicine.
South Dakota
Being a doctor in South Dakota pays well according to the 2015 prevailing wage rates. The average salary from the 56 petitions filed last year was around $147,000. Jobs petitioned in the state’s DOL are mostly in the field of medicine including physicians, surgeons and nursing assistants, although teachers have also petitioned.
Maine
The state of Maine is also another generous state, having average wage at around $139,000 for green card petitioners. Just like Wyoming and South Dakota, green card petitions in Maine include a lot of jobs in the medical industry. However, petitions in this state also include information technology jobs such as computer programmers and software developers.
North Dakota
Salaries of jobs petitioned in the state of North Dakota averaged at around $132,000. Moreover, doctors comprise a large chunk of the petitions made in North Dakota. This is followed by IT jobs and those in academics.
West Virginia
The fifth highest state with a high average salary for green card petitioners is West Virginia. In 2015, average salaries related to green card petitions in the area close in at $119,500. Moreover: IT, medicine, and education lead the field for green card petitions.
PARK ADVERTISING
For assistance with your PERM advertising case, please email us at [email protected], call us at (212) 581-8877. You can also request a free quote online!
SOURCE: MyVisaJobs
