Most of the employment-based immigration journey starts from the labor certification process. During the fiscal years 2005 through 2007, the Labor Department was under the pressure to achieving dual goals at the same time. One was to reduce the exsiting backlogs which accounted for 360,000 applications. The second goal was to prevent backlogs for the future cases to help achieve the overall goal of removing the backlogs by the end of FY 2007, September 30, 2007. The PERM electronic filing, processing and certification process was devised to achieve the goal. To serve the purpose of the reengineering of the foreign labor certification system, the PERM program was able to achieve the certification of applications from one day to less than two months. However, along with taking off of the burden of 360,000 backlogs from their shoulders by September 2007, the Labor Department has turned off the hook of the previous pressure of reducing the processing times. It appears that this has turned the focus of the foreign labor certification program from the processing times reduction to the achievement of the integrity of the foreign labor certification applications. Such change is witnessed by the recent massive audit processes which the Labor Department lanuched beginning from August 2007. Attorneys and employers have been reporting massive audit letters which they have received upon filing of PERM applications since August 2007. Accordingly, the glorious days of from one day to two months processing of PERM applications are turning things of the past. It is anticipated that this policy will continue in FY 2008 as they expect to launch a new revised ETA 9089 form which is targeted to achieve the integrity of the labor certification process. Employers should thus be prepared for the new environment of foreign labor certification and potential delays and massive denials of the applications down the road.

As for the I-140 and I-485 processing and adjudication, the USCIS has already posted a notice to the public that because of the July 2007 visa fiasco, the USCIS is and will continuously experience delays in the processing of cases at both front end and back end. God knows how long it will take for the I-140 and I-485 applicants to receive the decisions in the mail. I-140 petitions are almost hopelessly taking a long time with no opportunity for the premium processing. This has been creating a terrible pain in the knuckle in terms of a road block to certain H-1B extensions and change of employment which are ncessary to survive in their growingly long journey to the employment-based immigration. It apepars that the USCIS does not have any plan to reinstate the premium processing services for I-140 petitions in the near future. As for the I-485 applicants, the Visa Bulletin in July, September, October, and November opened a small window of hope to receive approval of their applications, albeit still limited. Now, all of sudden, the December Visa Bulltin drops a heavy iron gate before most of these I-485 applicants from India and China. The doors will be very much shut for these Indian and Chinese people. The doors will be shut for those Indians and Chinese who have been trying to leave the pipeline of the long I-485 journey. More importantly, the doors will be shut for those who obtain the labor certification approvals even to enter the journey of I-485 green card application. Since it is expected to take a long and long time for these late starters of the immigration journey during when they will not be afforded with EAD and Advance Parole, not to mention unavailability of change of employment during the protracted process before reaching the state of filing of I-485 applications, the future immigration journey will turn more painful.

The only answers to the mountain-high road blocks must come from the Congress, but facing the national election politics, there is a slim chance that the Congress will address to the current employment-based immigration problems until the election is over in November 2008. As we reiterated over and over in the past, the current quota of 140,000 per year is indeed a small number for these foreign workers considering the fact that the number includes the spouses and children of these foreign workers. As affected by the choked foreign workers nonimmigrant H-1B quota and immigrant quota, more and more U.S. employers are seeking help from the work forces in foreign countries and outsourcing of their businesses is turning part of the business not only for large businesses but also medium and small businesses. As an employment-based immigration practitioner, this reporter hears everyday companies opening new outsourcing ventures across the ocean. The country is so numb to the issue of outsourcing any more that this huge and massive marches of outsourcing of U.S. businesses are currently taking place with no media attentions and political microscope of the legisture and the public. Outsourcing of small businesses is indeed an eye-opener for this reporter, raising concerns and misgivings over the future of this nation heavily depending of their businesses on high tech work forces in foreign countries. Under the circumstances, the Congressional leaders\' rhetorics of national policy to induce their kids to seek science, engineering, and math careers is indeed a comic and ironically absurd self-defeating total failure and vacuum in the nation\'s political leadership. This reporter heard a few ago from a parent of graduating 2008 class of a high school, only 5% of the high school graduates were heading for the science and engineering majors!!! The nation\'s current employment-based immigration policy is so flawed with no vision that the nation will pay a hefty price for these leaders\' failure in the next decades. The situation is alarming and a wake-up call.