How to Complete and File ETA Form 9089 for PERM

To file ETA Form 9089 for PERM, an employer must first obtain a prevailing wage determination from the Department of Labor, complete a set of mandatory recruitment steps within a defined window, and then submit the form electronically through the Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG) with information that exactly matches the underlying wage determination and recruitment records. The form is the Department of Labor’s request for permanent labor certification, and it asks the government to confirm that no qualified U.S. worker is available for the specific job the employer wants to fill with a foreign national. As of early 2026, analyst review runs roughly 503 calendar days from filing, so accuracy on the front end matters more than speed.¹

One boundary worth naming up front: certain occupations are pre-certified under Schedule A (physical therapists, professional nurses, and immigrants of exceptional ability in the sciences, arts, or performing arts). Employers hiring for those roles skip PERM entirely and file the Schedule A designation directly with USCIS alongside the I-140.² If that’s your situation, you don’t need this form.

Step One: Get the Prevailing Wage Determination

You cannot file ETA Form 9089 without a prevailing wage determination from the National Prevailing Wage Center.³ The determination sets the minimum salary the employer must offer for the specific job in the specific location, and the offered wage must equal or exceed that figure so that hiring a foreign worker doesn’t undercut pay for similarly employed U.S. workers.⁴

As of early 2026, the NPWC is processing prevailing wage requests filed around December 2025, so turnaround is running roughly three months. That number shifts, so check the DOL’s processing times page before you plan your recruitment calendar.¹

Everything downstream, including the job description, education, experience, and skill requirements on Form 9089, has to match what you submitted on the prevailing wage request. Inconsistencies between the two are one of the more common grounds for denial.

Step Two: Complete the Required Recruitment

Once the prevailing wage determination is in hand, the employer must test the local labor market. The recruitment activity has to fall within a specific window: at least 30 days but no more than 180 days before you file the application.⁵

Steps Required for Every Position

Two mandatory steps apply to all PERM filings. Place a job order with the State Workforce Agency serving the area where the job is located, and keep it running for 30 days. Then run two print advertisements on two different Sundays in a newspaper of general circulation in the area of intended employment. If the location is rural and has no Sunday edition, use the edition with the widest circulation.⁵

The ads must include the employer’s name, a job description specific enough for applicants to understand the position, the geographic location, instructions on where to send resumes, and any travel requirements. Salary is not generally required unless state law says so. For positions requiring both experience and an advanced degree, one of the two Sunday ads may be replaced with an ad in a professional journal.⁵

Extra Steps for Professional Occupations

If the job qualifies as a professional occupation, the employer must complete three additional recruitment activities from a list of ten:

Job fairs for the relevant occupation
The employer’s own website
A third-party job search website
On-campus recruiting
Trade or professional organizations
Private employment firms
An employee referral program with incentives
Campus placement offices
Local and ethnic newspapers
Radio and television advertisements

Only one of the three additional steps may consist entirely of activity within 30 days of filing, and none may have taken place more than 180 days before filing.⁶

The Recruitment Report

When recruitment closes, the employer prepares a signed recruitment report describing each step, the results, the number of hires, and the number of U.S. workers rejected along with lawful, job-related reasons for each rejection. The Certifying Officer can request rejected applicants’ resumes sorted by rejection reason, so keep them organized.⁶

Rejection reasons need to be genuinely job-related. You can reject an applicant who lacks minimum qualifications that can’t be filled through reasonable on-the-job training. If someone broadly meets the major requirements, though, the employer generally has a duty to interview before rejecting. Vague or pretextual rejections are a fast way to lose a case in audit.

Step Three: Complete ETA Form 9089

The form is filed through FLAG at flag.dol.gov, and you’ll need a Login.gov account to access the system. Precision matters throughout, because the DOL cross-checks the form against the prevailing wage determination and the recruitment record.

Employer Information

The opening section asks for the employer’s legal name, address, Federal Employer Identification Number (not a Social Security number), and the number of employees currently on payroll in the area of intended employment.⁷ Every employer, including private households, must have an FEIN from the IRS before filing.

Job Opportunity Details

The job description, education level, years of experience, and specialized skills entered here must match the prevailing wage determination request. FLAG pre-populates some of these fields by pulling from the prevailing wage tracking number, which reduces manual entry errors.⁷ Overly restrictive requirements that appear tailored to fit only the sponsored worker will draw scrutiny.

Recruitment Information

This section requires exact start and end dates for the State Workforce Agency job order and the two newspaper ads, plus documentation of the three additional steps for professional positions.⁷ Dates outside the 30-to-180-day window will cause a denial on the face of the application.

Foreign Worker Information

The beneficiary section covers the foreign national’s education and employment history. Their qualifications must meet or exceed the minimum requirements listed for the job. A mismatch is grounds for denial.⁷

If the beneficiary holds a foreign degree, USCIS will look at a credentials evaluation from an independent evaluator or authorized school official to determine U.S. equivalency. The evaluation needs a credible, well-documented basis; conclusory opinions carry no weight, and the final equivalency call rests with the reviewing officer.⁸

Step Four: Sign and Submit

Before submission, FLAG requires electronic signatures from the employer, the foreign worker, and the attorney or agent handling the case. These signatures are legal attestations that everything in the application is true and accurate.⁷ Knowingly providing false information is a federal offense punishable by fines, imprisonment, or both under 18 U.S.C. 1001 and related statutes.

Electronic filing is the standard method and produces an immediate confirmation with a case number. Employers who have received a hardship waiver for electronic filing may submit a paper form by mail to the designated processing center, but every field still needs a value: use “N/A” or “0” for inapplicable items rather than leaving them blank.⁷

Who Pays for What

The employer bears all PERM-related costs. Federal regulations prohibit the employer from seeking or receiving payment of any kind from the foreign worker for activities related to obtaining the labor certification. That prohibition covers attorney’s fees, recruitment costs, filing expenses, and reimbursement in any form. “Payment” is defined broadly and includes wage concessions, salary deductions, kickbacks, in-kind payments, and free labor.⁹

The one exception: a foreign worker may pay for their own separate immigration attorney if that attorney represents only the worker. When the same attorney represents both sides, the employer pays all fees.⁹ Violating these rules can trigger denial, revocation of an approved certification, or debarment from the PERM program.

What Happens After You File

The application enters the DOL’s review queue, where a Certifying Officer evaluates whether the employer met every regulatory requirement, whether a qualified U.S. worker is available, and whether hiring the foreign worker would adversely affect wages or working conditions for similarly employed Americans.¹⁰

Average analyst review time as of February 2026 is 503 calendar days — roughly 16 to 17 months. That’s noticeably longer than the six-to-twelve-month range that used to be common. Cases pulled for audit take longer still. The DOL’s processing times page carries the current figure.¹

If the application is approved, the employer receives a certified labor certification, and a new clock starts. The certification expires if the employer doesn’t file the I-140 immigrant petition with USCIS within 180 calendar days of the approval date.¹¹ Miss that window and you start PERM over from the beginning, so have the I-140 substantially prepared before certification comes through.¹²

The date the DOL accepts your application for processing becomes the “priority date” for the green card, which determines the beneficiary’s place in line for a visa number in their preference category and country of birth.¹² For nationals of India and China, where EB-2 and EB-3 backlogs run years, small delays in getting the PERM on file translate into meaningful delays down the road.

If the DOL Audits Your Application

Some applications are selected for audit, either randomly or because something in the filing raised a flag. If yours is audited, you have 30 days from the audit letter to submit the recruitment report and all supporting documentation. The Certifying Officer may grant one extension of up to 30 additional days, but the extension is discretionary.¹³

A substantial failure to provide the requested documentation results in denial and can trigger supervised recruitment, in which the employer conducts a new job search under direct federal oversight. Supervised recruitment can also be imposed when the Certifying Officer finds a material misrepresentation, and it can apply to the current application and to future applications for up to two years.⁶

If the Application Is Denied

A denial isn’t necessarily the end. The employer has two paths, but not both at once. The first is a request for reconsideration by the Certifying Officer, filed in writing within 30 calendar days of the Final Determination letter. The second is a request for review by the Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA), also filed within 30 calendar days, with the cover letter stating “Request for BALCA Review Only” at the top. If you seek reconsideration first and lose, a BALCA appeal is still available, and the 30-day clock restarts from the reconsideration denial. Miss the 30-day deadline and the denial stands.¹⁴

Records to Keep

Employers must retain copies of the filed ETA Form 9089 and all supporting documentation for five years from the filing date. That includes the recruitment report, copies of every advertisement, rejected applicants’ resumes, the prevailing wage determination, and correspondence with the DOL.⁶

Additional documentation applies if the sponsored worker has an ownership interest in the company, is related to corporate officers or partners, or is one of ten or fewer employees. Be prepared to show articles of incorporation, a list of officers and shareholders with their relationships to each other and to the worker, the company’s financial history, and the identity of the person with primary hiring authority. These cases receive heightened scrutiny because the DOL verifies that the job opportunity is genuine and not created solely to benefit the foreign national.⁶

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Processing Times
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Schedule A Designation Petitions
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Prevailing Wages
4
Federal Register. Improving Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Foreign Nationals
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eCFR. 20 CFR 656.17 – Filing Applications
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eCFR. Labor Certification Process for Permanent Employment of Aliens in the United States
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U.S. Department of Labor. Form ETA-9089 – General Instructions
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Evaluation of Education Credentials
9
eCFR. 20 CFR 656.12 – Improper Commerce and Payment
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eCFR. 20 CFR 656.24 – Labor Certification Determinations
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eCFR. 20 CFR 656.30 – Validity of and Filing With Permanent Labor Certifications
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Visa Availability and Priority Dates
13
eCFR. 20 CFR 656.20 – Audit Procedures
14
U.S. Department of Labor. 2019 PERM FAQs Round 14 – Withdrawals, Requests for Redetermination or BALCA Review, and Pay Differentials