Why do RIR and traditional Labor Certification Applications take so long to approve?
While RIR was once lauded as a speedy approval process in comparison to its predecessor traditional labor certification system, it slowed significantly due to sheer volume. The situation was exacerbated by the backlog caused by the influx of filings at the end of April 2001 prior to the termination of the 245(i) provisions. Presently, the backlogged RIR and traditional Labor Certification applications are being processed by two Backlog Reduction Centers (BRCs). But because such large volumes of backlogged cases were transferred from local offices all over the country, each of which had different processing speeds and levels of backlog, the BRC’s processing rates continue to be slower than we would like. Processing times and status can be checked at [LINK] as detailed below.
