This guide is for the attorney or HR team about to file an I-140 on a certified PERM, and for the worker reading the date on their own certification. The deadline is the expiration date DOL prints on the certification. File the I-140 by that date and the certification does its job; miss it and the PERM stage starts again.
The rule, 20 C.F.R. § 656.30(b)(1)
An approved permanent labor certification granted on or after July 16, 2007 "expires if not filed in support of a Form I-140 petition with the Department of Homeland Security within 180 calendar days of the date the Department of Labor granted the certification."
The date to use is the one DOL prints
DOL's Final Determination form for a certified ETA-9089 has a "Labor Certification Validity Information" block with three fields: 11, the filing date; 12, the determination date; and 13, the expiration date. The same page says the certification "will expire if not filed in support of Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers (Form I-140) with the Department of Homeland Security by the aforementioned expiration date."
On the certifications we've seen, that date is the determination date plus 179 days, which counts the determination day itself as the first of the 180. DOL publishes no note on the count. If the date printed on a certification ever differs from that arithmetic, the printed date is the one the form ties the expiration to.
Why sources disagree by a day
The regulation says "within 180 calendar days of the date" of the grant. Count the grant day as day one and the last day is the grant plus 179. Count from the next day and it's the grant plus 180. Both readings appear in guides and calculators, which is the whole of the one-day gap.
| Determination date | Date DOL prints (plus 179) | Counted from the next day (plus 180) |
|---|---|---|
| Monday, March 2, 2026 | Friday, August 28, 2026 | Saturday, August 29, 2026 |
| Monday, June 15, 2026 | Friday, December 11, 2026 | Saturday, December 12, 2026 |
| Monday, October 5, 2026 | Friday, April 2, 2027 | Saturday, April 3, 2027 |
The earlier date is the safe one, and it's also the date on the certification. There's no reason to plan around the later one.
Getting the I-140 in on time
Read field 13 on the day the certification arrives
That's the deadline. Put it on the case with a reminder well ahead of it.
Have the employer sign the certification
Under 20 C.F.R. § 656.17(a)(1) (2025), an application "filed and certified electronically must, upon receipt of the labor certification, be signed immediately by the employer in order to be valid."
Prepare the I-140 against the certified job
The certification "is valid only for the particular job opportunity, the alien named on the original application," and the area of intended employment it states (§ 656.30(c)(2)).
File with USCIS before the printed date
The rule offers no extension. A duplicate certification, if one is ever needed, carries "the same filing and expiration dates" as the original (§ 656.30(e)(3)), so it doesn't buy time.
What missing it costs
The certification expires and can't support an I-140. The employer would need a new PERM application, recruitment included, and the new case brings a new priority date: the priority date is the filing date of the approved certification (§ 656.30(a)(2)), so a later filing means a later date. For a worker in a backlogged category, that's a later place in line under the visa bulletin. The three 180-day clocks guide sets this clock beside the two USCIS ones that people confuse it with.
What the case status shows
DOL's case-status service moves a certified case to CERTIFIED - EXPIRED once the 180 days pass. This site's reading, since DOL publishes no note on it, is that the status records the clock running out. It can't say whether an I-140 went in, because the I-140 is filed with USCIS and nothing suggests DOL hears about it. A case filed with USCIS on day 30 and one where nobody filed both end up there. The status meanings page covers it with the others, and the case lookup shows the status for any case number.
What this guide can't tell you
- Whether an I-140 for your case was filed. The employer's attorney knows; DOL's record doesn't.
- How long USCIS will take once it's filed. The I-140 calculator puts USCIS's published processing time beside the queue of petitions waiting.
- Anything about your own case's legal position. Nothing here is legal advice; the attorney on the case is the one to ask.
Related
- The three 180-day clocks in a PERM case
- The PERM deadlines that actually matter
- Every PERM case status, explained
The free case app at PERM Tracker for attorneys puts each certified case's I-140 filing deadline, the determination date plus 179 days, on its deadline list with reminders.
