An RFI is a question. The verdict comes later. The analyst reviewing the application wants something clarified before deciding it, and the case leaves the ordinary queue until the answer arrives. That's the whole of what the status says. Everything else people read into it, including that the case is in trouble, isn't in the record. PERM Tracker's free case lookup can email you the day the status moves, checking a watched case against DOL's record every 5 minutes on weekdays from 7 AM to 9 PM Eastern.
What DOL is doing
The status itself comes from DOL. Its own case search, on flag.dol.gov, answers for a case number, and RFI ISSUED is what it prints.
The regulation, 20 CFR 656.20(d), lets the Certifying Officer request supplemental information or documentation at any point before a final determination. That's the hook. The letters themselves ask about the job: why a requirement is normal for the occupation, what a duty involves, whether a worksite is what the form says. Sometimes the question is about the recruitment, but that's more often an audit's territory.
An RFI is lighter than an audit, and DOL runs the two as separate statuses in separate queues. Audits call in the whole recruitment file under 656.20(a) and carry a 30-day clock, which the Certifying Officer may extend once, by up to 30 days. An RFI asks a question and the letter sets its own date. If your status is PENDING AUDIT RESPONSE rather than RFI ISSUED, you're in the other process, and the RFI deadline calculator counts the audit's 30 days.
Where the deadline comes from
The regulation sets no window for an RFI. The letter sets the date. In practice DOL gives 30 days: OFLC said so at a stakeholder session on September 27, 2024 (AILA's notes of it, document 24101705), and our own record agrees. That has two consequences:
- The date on the letter is the date that counts. The day anyone opened it doesn't change it.
- Nothing on a public page can tell you the deadline for your case for certain. Only the letter and the attorney who received it can.
A missed deadline is how a case that was going to be certified gets denied instead. The response goes back through whoever filed the case. A beneficiary can't answer an RFI directly, because the employer is the applicant.
What the record shows about RFIs
Our record shows the typical dates of an RFI and the share of decided RFI cases that were certified.
November 3, 2026: the case is in analyst review, in filing order.
What this shows
An illustration of an RFI issued on November 9, 2026. The siding is the RFI: the case leaves filing order while the employer answers. DOL gives the employer 30 days, to December 9, 2026. Our sweep has watched 1,639 RFIs from their first day since August 27, 2026. Half had left RFI status by day 31: DOL moves the case when its 30 days run out, and our sweep sees it the morning after. Then half were decided within 3 days of going back to review, and 3 in 4 within 5, over 957 decided cases. So the case page dates an RFI like this one around December 13, 2026, between December 11, 2026 and January 8, 2027. The late end is the day by which 9 in 10 were decided after leaving RFI. Of the 786 RFIs decided after a reply so far, 748 were certified. A letter can set a different date, and an extension or a second request takes a case out of these numbers. Drag along the track, or scroll, to move through the days.
Our sweep reads every PERM case's status from DOL each day, so it sees each RFI begin and end. The RFI and audit page keeps the full record.
Two things those numbers do and don't say. The share certified is a rate over cases already decided, and a case that's still open isn't in it, so it isn't your personal probability. And the dates are typical ones: they can't see an extension or a second request on your case.
What you can do while it's open
Get the letter's date and question from the attorney, watch the status for the change, and don't read the wait as a signal.
Get the letter's date and its question from the attorney
The letter went to the employer. Ask for the date on the letter and what it asks. The date is your deadline. The question tells you whether anything is needed from you. Usually nothing is. Sometimes it's a résumé detail or a degree evaluation.
Watch the status for the change
DOL doesn't announce when the answer was received or when the analyst picked it back up. The status changes when the case leaves RFI and again when the determination is made. The case status page checks DOL's record through the day and can email you when it moves.
Don't read the wait as a signal
Most cases leave RFI status when the 30 days run out and are decided within days of going back to review. Some take longer. A long wait after the response goes in is the analyst's queue. It says nothing about the answer.
What this guide can't tell you
It can't tell you why your case got an RFI, your deadline, or whether your case will be certified.
- Why your case got an RFI. DOL doesn't publish the reason, and the letter is the only record of it.
- Your deadline. It's on the letter and nowhere else.
- Whether your case will be certified. The share certified is a population rate, and the population is the cases already decided.
Related
- Every case status, explained for the status beside the ones around it.
- Read the denial and audit rates for how the audit and RFI shares are measured.
- What Application On Hold means if the status moved there instead.
Get an email when the status changes
Enter the case number once. The site checks DOL's record through the day and writes to you when the status moves, nothing else.
Look up the case
