What Is ETA 9089? Form, Recruitment, and Filing Process

Form ETA 9089 is the Application for Permanent Employment Certification, the form a U.S. employer files with the Department of Labor to start sponsoring a foreign worker for an employment-based green card. It is the core document of the PERM (Program Electronic Review Management) process, and in most employment-based cases the I-140 immigrant worker petition cannot move forward until this certification is approved. The form itself is short compared with the work behind it: before an employer ever opens the application, months of wage determination, recruitment, and recordkeeping have to be done first.

What the Form Is For

The Department of Labor does not decide immigration cases. Its job in the PERM process is narrower: protecting U.S. workers. Under 20 CFR 656.17, the agency reviews Form ETA 9089 to confirm two things. That no qualified U.S. worker is available for the position, and that hiring a foreign worker will not lower wages or working conditions for similarly employed Americans.¹

The burden sits on the employer the whole way through. The employer has to test the labor market with a structured recruitment campaign, offer at least the prevailing wage for the occupation, and document each step. The Department of Labor then looks at whether the recruitment was genuine and whether the results actually support the employer’s conclusion that no U.S. worker could fill the role.

The Prevailing Wage Comes First

Before any recruitment can start, the employer files Form ETA-9141 with the Department of Labor’s National Prevailing Wage Center to get a prevailing wage determination. The prevailing wage is the standard pay for that occupation in the geographic area where the job will be performed. Whatever salary the employer lists on ETA 9089 cannot fall below that number, and every recruitment advertisement has to reflect at least that wage.¹

The wage determination has its own processing time, which employers need to build into their overall schedule. Once it is issued, it sets the wage floor for the entire case. Advertising below it will sink the application.

Recruitment You Have to Complete Before Filing

Most of the pre-filing work is recruitment. Every employer using the standard PERM process has to run a real search for U.S. workers. The specific steps depend on whether the job is a professional occupation (one that normally requires at least a bachelor’s degree) or nonprofessional.²

The Two Steps Every Case Needs

Every PERM filing requires a 30-day job order with the State Workforce Agency in the area where the job is located, plus two Sunday newspaper advertisements in the local paper with the widest circulation. Both have to be completed at least 30 days before filing, and no more than 180 days before filing.¹

Extra Steps for Professional Jobs

If the job requires a bachelor’s degree or higher, the employer must add three more recruitment steps chosen from a list of ten: job fairs, 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, or radio and television ads.

Watch the timing. Only one of those three additional steps can consist solely of activity that took place within 30 days of filing, and none can be older than 180 days before filing. For jobs requiring an advanced degree, the employer may substitute one of the two Sunday newspaper ads with an ad in a professional journal.²

Schedule A Occupations Skip All of This

A narrow group of jobs is exempt from the standard recruitment process entirely. Schedule A covers physical therapists and professional nurses (Group I), and immigrants of exceptional ability in the sciences, arts, or performing arts, including certain college and university teachers (Group II). The Department of Labor has already determined that qualified U.S. workers are in short supply for these occupations, so the employer files a different version of the form directly with USCIS instead of going through the labor market test.³

The Notice of Filing at the Worksite

Alongside the outside recruitment, the employer has to post an internal Notice of Filing at the worksite. If the workforce has a union or bargaining representative, notice goes to that representative. Otherwise, the notice must be physically posted where workers will see it, such as near wage and hour posters or safety notices, for at least 10 consecutive business days. The posting has to happen between 30 and 180 days before filing. The notice also has to run through any internal media the employer normally uses to recruit for similar positions, whether that is an intranet, an email listserv, or a bulletin board.⁴

The notice must state that a permanent labor certification application is being filed, that anyone may submit evidence to the Department of Labor’s Certifying Officer, and provide the Certifying Officer’s address. Missing the posting window, or putting the notice somewhere workers cannot reasonably see it, is exactly the kind of defect that triggers an audit or denial.

What Goes on the Form

The form collects information in several sections. The employer sections require the Federal Employer Identification Number, the physical address of the main office, and the physical address of the worksite where the foreign worker will actually perform the job. Post office boxes are not accepted for either location.⁵

The job opportunity section asks for a detailed description of the duties, the minimum education and training required, and the prevailing wage determination number issued for the role. This is where the employer enters the offered wage, which cannot be lower than the prevailing wage.

The foreign worker’s sections cover education history, work experience, and specific skills matching the job requirements. The recruitment section asks for the names of newspapers or journals used, the exact dates of each advertisement, and information about the job order filed with the State Workforce Agency. The Department of Labor’s system cross-references the prevailing wage determination number against the job details, and any inconsistency triggers automatic flags.⁵

How and Where to File

Form ETA 9089 is filed electronically through the Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG) at flag.dol.gov. Before submitting, the employer must register an account with Login.gov and then create a FLAG account.⁶

The form includes declarations signed under penalty of perjury by the employer, the foreign worker, and any attorney or preparer who helped complete the application. Knowingly providing false information is a federal crime carrying up to five years in prison under 18 U.S.C. 1001.⁷ For electronic filings, signatures do not need to be on the form at the time of submission, but the certified application must be signed immediately upon receipt from the Department of Labor before it can go to USCIS with the I-140.⁸

A paper filing option exists for employers with specific waivers, but nearly all applications go through the electronic system. On successful submission, FLAG generates a confirmation with a unique case number that tracks the application through processing.

Who Pays

There is no government filing fee for Form ETA 9089 or for the prevailing wage determination. The employer, however, bears the cost of the recruitment campaign and any attorney fees tied to the PERM process. The regulations flatly prohibit the employer from seeking payment of any kind from the foreign worker for activities related to obtaining the labor certification. That prohibition covers attorney fees, recruitment advertising, and any other expense connected to the filing.²

A foreign worker can hire and pay for a separate immigration attorney. But when the same attorney represents both the employer and the worker, the employer has to pay all of that attorney’s fees. The rule defines “payment” broadly to include wage deductions, kickbacks, free labor, and in-kind payments, so workarounds do not fly.²

What Happens After You File

Once submitted, the application enters the Department of Labor’s review queue. There are three possible outcomes: certification, denial, or an audit requesting additional documentation.

Certification

If the application is certified, the employer has 180 calendar days from the certification date to file Form I-140 with USCIS. Miss that window and the certification expires, meaning the employer would need to start the entire PERM process over.⁹ USCIS will only accept the signed version of the certified form sent by the Department of Labor.¹⁰

Audits

The Department of Labor selects applications for audit, sometimes at random and sometimes because something in the filing raised a question. During an audit, the employer must produce the full recruitment report, copies of all advertisements, the original resumes of every applicant, and documented reasons for why each U.S. applicant was rejected. The employer has 30 days from the date of the audit letter to submit this documentation. The Certifying Officer can grant one 30-day extension, but that is not guaranteed.¹¹

This is why the regulations require employers to retain a copy of the application and every piece of recruitment documentation for five years from the date of filing.¹² Employers who did not keep organized files often cannot assemble a response inside the 30-day window. A substantial failure to respond, or inadequate documentation, can lead to denial of the current application and mandatory supervised recruitment for future applications for up to two years.²

Supervised Recruitment

Supervised recruitment is the Department of Labor looking over the employer’s shoulder. If the Certifying Officer finds that an employer failed to produce adequate documentation, made a material misrepresentation, or otherwise warrants extra scrutiny, the employer may be required to conduct all future recruitment under DOL supervision for up to two years. The Department of Labor dictates the specific recruitment steps, reviews the process in real time, and can deny the application at any stage.²

If the Application Is Denied

A denial is not necessarily the end. The employer has 30 calendar days from the date on the denial letter to either file a Request for Reconsideration with the Certifying Officer who issued the denial, or appeal directly to the Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA).¹³ If reconsideration is requested and the Certifying Officer upholds the denial, the employer then has another 30 calendar days to appeal to BALCA. Missing either 30-day deadline forfeits the right to challenge the denial.

How Long the Whole Thing Takes

As of February 2026, the Department of Labor reports that standard PERM applications are taking approximately 503 calendar days for analyst review, which works out to roughly 16 to 17 months. Audits add additional time on top of that.¹⁴

These times shift with application volume and have increased substantially in recent years. Since the prevailing wage determination, the recruitment campaign, and the mandatory waiting periods all happen before filing, the full PERM process commonly runs two years or more before the employer is even in a position to file the I-140 petition with USCIS.

1
eCFR. 20 CFR 656.17 – Basic Labor Certification Process
2
eCFR. Part 656 – Labor Certification Process for Permanent Employment of Aliens in the United States
3
USCIS. Chapter 7 – Schedule A Designation Petitions
4
eCFR. 20 CFR 656.10 – General Instructions
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Form ETA-9089 Instructions
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Permanent Labor Certification (PERM)
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1001 – Statements or Entries Generally
8
U.S. Department of Labor. ETA Form 9089 Application for Permanent Employment Certification
9
eCFR. 20 CFR 656.30 – Validity of and Invalidation of Labor Certifications
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Forms – Foreign Labor Certification
11
eCFR. 20 CFR 656.20 – Audit Procedures
12
eCFR. 20 CFR 656.10 – General Instructions
13
U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration. 2019 PERM FAQs Round 14 – Withdrawals, Requests for Redetermination or BALCA Review, and Pay Differentials
14
U.S. Department of Labor. Processing Times