This guide is for the attorney, paralegal or HR lead holding a PERM audit letter. The deadline runs 30 days from the date printed on the letter, the Certifying Officer can grant one extension of up to 30 days, and an answer that misses the date costs the case and the appeal with it.
What the audit letter does, 20 C.F.R. § 656.20(a)
It will "State the documentation that must be submitted by the employer" and "Specify a date, 30 days from the date of the audit letter, by which the required documentation must be submitted." It also warns that the application will be denied if the documentation isn't sent by that date.
The dates, worked
| Clock | From | Example | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Response due | The date printed on the audit letter. The day it arrived doesn't move it | Letter dated Tuesday, October 20, 2026: due Thursday, November 19, 2026 | 20 C.F.R. § 656.20(a)(2) (2025) |
| One extension | The Certifying Officer's discretion | At most 30 more days: Saturday, December 19, 2026 | § 656.20(c) |
| Reconsideration of a denial | The date the denial issues | 30 days | § 656.24(g)(1) |
The RFI and audit deadline calculator counts the 30 days from the letter's date and gives the weekday. The regulation allows "one extension, of up to 30 days," at the officer's discretion and names no procedure for asking, so ask well inside the first 30 days and keep working on the response as if it won't be granted.
Working the response
Read the letter's list first
The letter states the documentation it wants (§ 656.20(a)(1)). That list is the scope of the response. Answer every item on it, in its order.
Diary the date from the letter
Put the due date on the case the day the letter arrives, counted from the letter's own date. Add a reminder a week before.
Pull the audit file
Everything an audit can ask for should already be in the file the employer kept under § 656.10(f). The document checklist lists what each stage keeps.
Check the documents against the application
The ads' requirements against the ETA-9089 (§ 656.17(f)(6)), the job order dates against Section H, the recruitment report's counts against the resumes. A mismatch found now can be explained in the response itself.
Send it with an index, and keep proof it was sent
A cover index that follows the letter's list, and a record of when and how the response went in.
What the regulation lets an audit ask for
The letter governs, but each request traces to a rule the employer attested to or had to document.
| Documentation | Where the duty comes from |
|---|---|
| The recruitment report, and resumes sorted by rejection reason | 20 C.F.R. § 656.17(g)(1) |
| Proof of each recruitment step: job order, ads, additional steps | § 656.17(e) |
| The notice of filing, where it was posted, and in-house media copies | § 656.10(d)(1) |
| Business necessity for requirements beyond the occupation's norm | § 656.17(h) |
| The worker's experience at hire, and comparable hires | § 656.17(i) |
| Notice to and consideration of laid-off workers | § 656.17(k) |
| Ownership, family ties and hiring authority, where they apply | § 656.17(l) |
| Position descriptions and payroll records showing permanent, full-time work | § 656.3 (defining "employment") |
| Any supplemental information the officer requests | § 656.20(d)(1) |
What a late answer costs
Missing the date costs more than the application. Under § 656.20(a)(3), failing to provide the documentation in time "constitutes a refusal to exhaust available administrative remedies," and the review procedure in § 656.26 is then closed to the employer. So the case is denied and the route to the Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals is closed.
There's a second cost further out. "A substantial failure by the employer to provide required documentation will result in that application being denied" and may lead the officer to require supervised recruitment on the employer's future filings "for up to 2 years" (§§ 656.20(b), 656.24(f)). That would reach the employer's other filings for the length of the order.
After the response goes in
Before deciding, the officer may request more information or require supervised recruitment for the pending application (§ 656.20(d)). If the case is denied, a request for reconsideration may include only documents DOL already received in response to its own request, or documents that existed at filing and were kept under § 656.10(f) (§ 656.24(g)(2)). That's why the audit file is built before any letter arrives.
Audit or RFI
An audit is the formal instrument under § 656.20(a), with the fixed 30 days. A request for information under § 656.20(d) carries whatever date its own letter gives. If the case status reads RFI ISSUED rather than an audit, the RFI guide covers that process.
What the record shows
DOL publishes no audit rate. Its processing-times figures do name the filing month its Audit Review queue is working, and the processing times page shows that month beside the main queue. The RFIs, audits and appeals page counts the cases at each review stage from DOL's case-status service, and what has happened to the RFIs this site watched.
What this guide can't do
- Tell you what a particular letter asks for. The letter says it, and the attorney on the case answers it. Nothing here is legal advice.
- Predict the outcome. An audit is a request for proof; the decision depends on what the file shows.
Related
- The PERM audit file, for what the file should already hold
- My PERM got audited. Is that bad?, the same process explained for the worker
- Reconsideration, BALCA and appeals, for what follows a denial
The free case app at PERM Tracker for attorneys keeps every case's deadlines in one list with reminders, so a response date sits beside the case's other dates.
