US immigration authorities have announced that they would accept petitions for H-1B visas, popular among Indian professionals, without the certified Labour Condition Applications (LCAs) for a 120-day period till March 4 next year in view of processing delay at Department of Labour.

The decision in this regard from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) came after it received a number of requests from the affected people that the agency should accept H-1B petition filings that include LCAs that have been filed with the Department of Labour (DOL) but have not yet certified by DOL.

Processing delays arising from DOL's recently implemented 'iCERT' system have resulted in increased processing time, beyond seven days, for certain LCA certifications.

Employers and beneficiaries are being negatively impacted by DOL's increased processing time which currently delays their ability to file with USCIS petitions for H-1B visas, 12,000 slots of which are still to be filled up.

DOL expects that the current increase in LCA processing time is temporary, the USCIS said in a statement.

As a public accommodation, USCIS will begin to accept H-1B petitions filed with uncertified LCAs for 120 days, commencing November 5, and through March 4, 2010, it said.

However, USCIS will only accept such H-1B petitions if they are filed at least seven calendar days after LCAs were filed with DOL and include evidence of filings.

The only acceptable evidence of filing is a copy of DOL's e-mail giving notice of receipt of the LCA, the USCIS said.

Petitioners, who seek to take advantage of this temporary flexibility in the normal filing procedures for H-1B petitions, must wait until they receive a request for evidence (RFE) before they submit the DOL-certified LCA to USCIS in support of the H-1B petition, it said.

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