If you know the date on your prevailing wage determination, every other date in the PERM stage follows from it. Nothing here is a forecast. These are fixed rules in 20 CFR 656, so a wrong date here is an arithmetic error rather than a bad guess about DOL.
This walks through getting them from PERM Tracker's free deadline calculator, which can copy every date or add it to a calendar. It also covers what the calculator deliberately refuses to tell you.
Where the determination date comes from
The chain starts at the wage determination, and the PERM filing comes later. If you have the ETA-9141 case number (the one starting with P-100-), put it into the case lookup. You get DOL's own record, including the determination and how long it stays valid.
No account is needed for that. If the number isn't already held here, the site asks DOL at that moment and records the answer.
Enter the dates
You enter up to three dates: the determination date, which is required, and the first and last recruitment steps, which are optional.
The determination date
It's the only required input. On its own it gives you the date the determination expires, which is the day recruitment has to begin by.
The first recruitment step
It's optional, but the recruitment deadlines and the close of the filing window all hang off this one.
The last recruitment step
It's optional, and it's needed only for the date the filing window opens. That date runs from the end of recruitment rather than the start.
What comes back
Each date is measured from recruitment. The wage expiry adds a second cap only when recruitment began before the determination was issued, and then the tool shows the earlier of the two.
| The date | Measured from recruitment | Also capped by the wage expiry, if recruitment began before the determination |
|---|---|---|
| Wage determination expires | not applicable | this is the expiry, under 656.40(c) |
| State job order must start by | first step plus 120 days | 60 days before the expiry |
| First Sunday advertisement by | first step plus 143 days, rounded back to a Sunday | 37 days before the expiry |
| Notice of filing must be posted by | first step plus 150 days | 30 days before the expiry |
| ETA-9089 filing window opens | last step plus 30 days | not applicable |
| ETA-9089 filing window closes | first step plus 180 days | the expiry itself |
The wage expiry isn't a fixed number of days, which is why it can't be done in your head. Under 656.40(c), a determination issued in July is good until 30 June of the following year. One issued in January is good until 30 June of that same year, and one issued in May lasts about 90 days. The same employer with the same job can get very different amounts of room.
When the wage expiry closes the window
20 CFR 656.40(c) asks employers to "file their applications or begin the recruitment period" while the determination is valid. Either one is enough. So when the first recruitment step falls on or after the determination date and on or before its expiry, the filing window closes 180 days after that first step, even if that's after the determination expires. The Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals read the rule this way en banc in Karl Storz Endoscopy-America (2011-PER-00040, December 1, 2011). For this purpose, the notice of filing doesn't count as beginning recruitment. The prevailing wage expiry guide sets out both Board decisions, and the worked example runs a whole case through the dates.
The wage expiry closes the window early in one case: recruitment that began before the determination was issued. Then the window closes at the earlier of 180 days after the first step and the determination's expiry, and the tool says so on the date itself.
The tool asks for the determination date, so it knows which case you're in. Check with the attorney on the case before relying on a filing after the expiry.
We've changed this rule twice. The calculator once ignored the wage expiry altogether, and from August to October 2026 it applied the expiry to every case, which was stricter than DOL. Both are recorded in the corrections log.
When it warns instead of answering
Some combinations of dates can't make a valid timeline, and computing them quietly would hide the problem. Three cases get a warning band above the dates rather than below:
- The first recruitment step falls after the determination expired. Recruitment has to begin while the determination is valid, so nothing computed from it can support a filing.
- The last step is earlier than the first. The window is withheld entirely here, because reversed dates still produce plausible looking output.
- The window opens after it closes. The 30-day quiet period runs past the filing deadline, so as entered there's no day on which the case could be filed.
The warnings sit above the results on purpose. A date computed from suspect input shouldn't read as more authoritative than the doubt about the input.
What this can't tell you
- When DOL will decide the case. That takes a queue forecast, which lives in the processing time calculator. How close it lands is on the estimate scorecard.
- Whether the recruitment you ran was adequate. The tool works out the standard windows. Professional roles need three additional steps beyond the ones listed, and supervised recruitment runs on a different set of rules.
- Whether an audit or a request for information is coming. We publish measured audit and denial rates, and we refuse to blend them into a single risk score, because the factors aren't independent.
- Anything about the employer's intent. A valid determination is a legal step. It doesn't commit the employer to file.
Nothing here is legal advice.
The timeline calculator is a forecast, and the site checks its dates every night against what DOL then did:
- When DOL decides a PERM case waiting in its line3 days typically, 86% within a week10,284 cases DOL decided from October 19 to November 8, 2026, each dated as the line stood on the first day
- The range given with that date, near the front of the line74% decided inside it61,931 cases, tested on start days the range wasn't drawn from
- When DOL decides a PERM case its line has already passed8 days typically, where DOL's own average was 33 days off2,634 such cases DOL decided from October 19 to November 8, 2026
- When DOL decides a PERM case after an RFI3 days typically, 52% inside the range435 RFI cases DOL decided, dated from their own RFI day
Related
- The PERM deadlines that actually matter, for the regulations behind each date
- Track a prevailing wage request, if the determination hasn't been issued yet
- Case status lookup, for DOL's current record on a PERM, wage request or LCA number
