<p>The Department of Labor has issued its proposed new labor certification regulations due to become effective on March, 28, 2005. The new regulations substantially change the labor certification procedures from the former regulations. A labor certification is a prerequisite to opening an employment based permanent resident immigrant application in many cases.<br /><br />In summary, the new regulations would:<br /><br />1. Create four skill levels for each occupation and four different prevailing wages for labor certification applications.<br /><br />2. Create specific procedures for prefiling recruitment steps including publishing two Sunday ads in the area of intended employment, and require three additional recruitment steps including job fairs, employer's website, job search website, on-campus recruiting, and others.<br /><br />3. Require new record keeping requirements of employers and allow electronic filing of applications on new form ETA 9089.<br /><br />4. Would continue to allow special requirements for certain occupations based on business necessity including foreign language but with certain qualifications.</p>