Three statuses cover a PERM under appeal, and they're steps on one ladder rather than alternatives. Reconsideration asks the officer who denied the case to change their mind. A request for review asks a judge to. BALCA APPEALS is the case sitting with those judges. Each step has its own rule, its own window, and a measurable population of cases waiting at it. PERM Tracker's RFI, audit and appeal page counts the cases at each step from its daily read of DOL's own case-status service.
The outcomes BALCA can reach
Under 20 CFR 656.27(c) the Board affirms the denial, directs the Certifying Officer to grant the certification, or orders a hearing. The regulation lists those three and nothing else.
The ladder
The three appeal statuses are steps on one ladder: reconsideration by the same officer, a request for review, then the case at BALCA. The first two each have a 30-day window.
| Status | What's happening | Rule | Window |
|---|---|---|---|
| RECONSIDERATION APPEALS | The employer asked the same officer to look again | 20 CFR 656.24(g) | 30 days from the denial |
| REQUEST FOR REVIEW | The employer asked for BALCA review. The officer forwards the file | 20 CFR 656.26 | 30 days from the determination |
| BALCA APPEALS | The Board has the case. Everyone gets 30 days to file a statement of position | 20 CFR 656.27 | Set by the Board's notice |
How each step has ended so far
Nine in ten denials go back to the officer first, and about half of those motions have ended in a certification.
Motions to reconsider granted, as of October 16, 2026
236 of the 423 decided motions to reconsider that our sweep has watched were granted: certified outright, or sent back for review. The other 187 were refused with a NORD or a denial. Counted from every PERM status change seen since August 27, 2026.
Our sweep reads DOL's status for every PERM case, so each move from one step to the next is on record. Here's where cases went after each step, from the RFI and audits page, read October 16, 2026:
| After this step | Moves seen | Where the case went next |
|---|---|---|
| A denial | 3,038 | Reconsideration requested 2,731 (90%), appealed to BALCA 185 (6%), somewhere else 122 (4%) |
| A motion to reconsider | 423 | Certified 215 (51%), NORD issued 177 (42%), put on hold 11 (3%), back to analyst review 10 (2%), denied 10 (2%) |
| A NORD | 220 | Denied 165 (75%), request for review 52 (24%), reconsideration requested 3 (1%) |
| A request for review | 51 | Appealed to BALCA 48 (94%), reconsideration requested 3 (6%) |
The rows read as one path. Nine in ten denials go back to the officer first. About half of those motions end in a certification. Most of the rest get a NORD, which typically sat 30 days before its next move, and three in four NORDs ended in a denial. Almost every request for review goes on to the Board.
Three limits on these figures. They cover seven weeks of moves, so they'll shift as the record grows. A move is counted whether or not we saw the case arrive at the step, so they show where cases go and leave out how long each step takes. And no figure here forecasts one case. The NORD guide covers what that status means.
Reconsideration
The request goes to the officer who issued the denial, within 30 days of it. It can only carry documents DOL already received, or documents the employer had no earlier chance to submit that existed when the application was filed and were kept on file. That's the whole of what can be added, and it's why reconsideration works for a misread form and rarely for a missing one.
The officer has two choices: reconsider, or treat the request as a request for review and send it to the Board. Under 656.24(g)(3) reconsideration isn't available where the denial came from disregarding a system prompt or a direct instruction.
The employer picks one route and says which in writing. DOL's own answers on appeals say a request that's vague or asks for both is handled as reconsideration. If the officer upholds the denial, DOL sends a notice. The employer then has 30 days from that notice to ask for Board review.
Request for review
This is the step that puts the denial in front of the Board. It goes to the officer rather than to BALCA directly, within 30 days of the determination. It has to identify the determination, set out the grounds and attach the final determination. The officer forwards the file. Nothing new is added to the record at this point either.
Letting both this window and the reconsideration window pass counts as a failure to exhaust administrative remedies. The denial then becomes the final determination of the Secretary, which forecloses a federal court looking at it later.
BALCA
The Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals is a panel of administrative law judges sitting outside the office that denied the case. It reviews the record the decision was made on, plus the request for review and any briefs, and every party gets 30 days to file a statement of position. Then the Board reaches one of the three outcomes above. Because the review is on the record, the argument is legal: whether the officer applied the regulation correctly to the facts already in the file. Improving the facts isn't on the table.
A fourth status, DENIED - BALCA DISMISSED, marks an appeal that ended without the Board ruling on its merits. DOL publishes no definition, so the words are the record.
Who's waiting at each step
The Board publishes no processing time, so this table shows how long the cases waiting at each step have been open since filing.
| As of October 16, 2026 | Cases | Median age since filing | Middle 80% |
|---|---|---|---|
| RECONSIDERATION APPEALS | 2,661 | 524 days | 407 to 679 days |
| REQUEST FOR REVIEW | 13 | too few to report | |
| BALCA APPEALS | 887 | 851 days | 672 to 1,081 days |
These ages are the measured figure. Each one runs from filing, so it includes the year or more the case spent in the ordinary queue before it was denied. The stage pages under RFI and audits list every case at each step, oldest filing first, with the employer names.
What this guide can't tell you
It can't tell you whether your denial is worth appealing, how long BALCA will take, or the chance for your case.
- Whether your denial has grounds worth appealing. That's the attorney's reading of the letter against the file.
- How long BALCA will take. No published time exists. The cases waiting are what can be measured.
- The chance for your case. The shares above describe everyone's motions over a few weeks. They don't weigh the grounds in one file. BALCA's own decisions are published, but this site doesn't hold them as data yet.
Related
- PERM denied: what happens next, which covers refiling as the third route
- Every case status, explained
- The three 180-day clocks, for what an earlier approved I-140 keeps through all of this
