On February 14, 2025, the Department of Labor’s OFLC announced that records older than five years from the final determination date in the FLAG system will be deleted starting March 20, 2025. This will affect key labor certification programs. Stakeholders must act quickly to retain necessary records before the deletion occurs.

The following OFLC programs will be impacted by this deletion process:

• Prevailing Wage Determinations (PWD): This program establishes the wages that employers must offer to foreign workers based on job type, location, and other factors to ensure fair wages.
• Permanent Labor Certification Applications (PERM): This program is used by U.S. employers to sponsor foreign workers for permanent residence in the United States.
• Temporary Labor Certification Applications: This includes programs for temporary work visas, such as:
  • H-2A Visas: Temporary agricultural workers.
  • H-2B Visas: Temporary non-agricultural workers.
  • CW-1 Visas: Temporary workers in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
• Temporary Labor Condition Applications: This program applies to employers filing for certain work visas, such as:
  • H-1B Visas: For specialty occupation workers.
  • H-1B1 Visas: For workers from Chile and Singapore.
  • E-3 Visas: For workers from Australia.

Stakeholders, including employers, immigration attorneys, and foreign workers, need to act quickly. If you have records in the FLAG system that are older than five years from the final determination date and you would like to retain them, you must download and save these records before March 20, 2025. Once the deletion begins, these records will be permanently removed from the system and will no longer be accessible. For example, if you have a PERM case with a final determination date of March 21, 2020, the record will be deleted on March 21, 2025. To avoid losing important data that may be required for future reference, audits, or compliance purposes, it’s crucial to take action now.

Explore more on:

Foreign Labor Certification | U.S. Department of Labor

OFLC Notice on Deletion of Certain Records within FLAG

OFLC Implements 5-Year Record Retention Protocol | NAFSA