If you have a P- case number, you can check it in PERM Tracker's free case status lookup, which asks DOL's own case-status service. Pending requests included. Here's what you get and what you don't.
A common myth, worth clearing up first
You'll read in a lot of places that DOL only shows prevailing wage cases to the public once they've been decided, so a pending request can't be tracked. That isn't right. DOL's case status system answers for pending requests too, and that's what this site reads.
What a prevailing wage request is
Before an employer can file a PERM application, it has to ask DOL what the job pays. That request is Form ETA-9141, and DOL's answer is the prevailing wage determination. It sets the minimum the employer must offer, and every date that follows is measured from it.
The request gets its own case number, separate from the PERM case number that comes later. It starts with P-100-, like P-100-26092-751498.
How long DOL is taking right now
DOL publishes the month it's working on, shown live below, and its case-status record shows the same queue request by request.
November 8, 2026, as DOL left it: DOL is finishing May 2026's last requests.
What this shows
An illustration of DOL's PERM wage-request line as DOL left it on November 8, 2026, by our count of its record, run forward. Each tray is one filing month. Its stack is that month's requests still in process, drawn to scale. The 2 older requests still waiting sit on the desk and go first. DOL's own published month was June 2026 on September 30, 2026. The reviewer works at DOL's average over the last 19 working days we measured: about 726 requests a working day, oldest first. Weekends and federal holidays don't count, because DOL doesn't work them. There are 14,237 requests ahead of one filed on the first day of September 2026, so the line reaches it around December 8, 2026. September 2026 itself holds 14,422, and a request filed on its last day is decided around January 6, 2027. Those are the dates the wage-request lookup gives, if DOL keeps that pace. New requests joining the back aren't drawn. Drag along the line, or scroll, to move through the days.
DOL's wage-request queue
By our daily check of DOL's case status on November 9, 2026, DOL is deciding PERM wage requests filed on August 5, 2026, about 3 months after they were filed. DOL's own table, dated September 30, 2026, names June 2026. DOL's month covers requests using its standard OEWS wage survey, and its table is on its processing times page.
DOL publishes a month. Its case-status record shows the same queue by filing month, request by request, and it moves ahead of the published figure between updates. On October 16, 2026, the wage request search counted:
| Filed in | Decided | Still waiting at DOL |
|---|---|---|
| April 2026 | 16,884 | 52 |
| May 2026 | 19,259 | 77 |
| June 2026 | 17,524 | 239 |
| July 2026 | 5,051 | 11,644 |
| August 2026 | 507 | 15,217 |
| September 2026 | 453 | 14,656 |
| October 2026, to the 16th | 154 | 7,179 |
So June's requests are almost all decided, and DOL had already worked through about three in ten of July's. A request filed in August or later is still behind most of July. In all, 49,081 wage requests were waiting at DOL that day.
For one request, the lookup goes further than the month. It counts the PERM wage requests filed before yours that DOL still has in process and divides by how many DOL decides on a working day, which gives an estimated day and a range. Every night the site checks those days against what DOL then did:
- When DOL issues a prevailing wage determination1 day typically, 99% within a week3,548 requests DOL decided through November 8, 2026
The estimate scorecard shows that check in full, with the day estimates written down each morning before DOL decides.
Look it up
Paste the number into the case status lookup. The same box takes PERM numbers, wage requests and H-1B labor condition applications, so you don't need to pick a tool first.
If the number isn't already in the corpus, the site asks DOL for it at that moment and records the answer, so a request filed recently still resolves.
What comes back on a pending request
For a request DOL hasn't decided yet, you get its current status, the employer, the job title, the filing date, and when the record was last checked. You also get where it sits in DOL's wage queue and an estimated day: the PERM wage requests filed before it that are still in process, over the rate our daily check has watched DOL finish them.
There are two limits on the queue figures. DOL doesn't publish how fast it clears requests, so the day is our own measurement. It's tested every night against what DOL went on to do, and labelled as an estimate. DOL also runs two wage queues that move at different speeds: one for requests using the standard federal wage survey and one for everything else. A case record doesn't say which queue it's in, so both are shown.
What comes back once it's decided
Once DOL issues the determination, you also get the part that matters most: the wage itself, the occupation DOL assigned, the worksite state, and how long the determination stays valid.
The validity date is worth understanding, because it isn't a fixed number of days. A determination issued in one part of the year expires at the end of that wage year, while one issued in another gets a set period. The deadline calculator works the real rule out from the determination date.
Where the two halves of the data come from
DOL exposes wage requests twice, and neither source is enough on its own.
| DOL's case status system | DOL's quarterly disclosure files | |
|---|---|---|
| Covers | anything DOL indexes, pending included | decided requests only |
| How current | checked daily | up to a quarter behind |
| Includes the wage | no | yes, with occupation and worksite |
So a pending request is visible through the first, and the wage arrives through the second. The lookup reads both and shows one record.
If you don't have the number
The employer or its attorney has it, and asking is the quickest route. Failing that, search by employer with the company's legal name, and narrow by job title or filing month. There's a fuller walkthrough in finding a DOL case number.
Hearing about it without checking
On a pending request you can leave an email address and hear when DOL's status changes. It's one email per change, and the link in it stops the alerts. Nothing else gets sent.
What this can't tell you
- Why a determination came out at the level it did. DOL doesn't publish its reasoning.
- Anything about a request DOL's system doesn't return, which includes very old filings.
- The employer's internal plans. A wage determination is a legal step. It doesn't commit anyone to file the PERM.
Related
- Wage request search, to find a number by employer
- PWD queue calculator, for the backlog month by month
- Every PERM deadline, which starts from the determination date
