Updated October 18, 2026

PERM processing time calculator

Estimate when the Department of Labor will decide your case, from DOL's own queue figures and its published record of decided cases.

When will DOL decide my PERM?

Date DOL received your case

Only know the month? The 15th is a fair midpoint.

Or paste your case number

The month is read straight from the number here. Nothing is looked up and nothing is stored. To see DOL's own status for it, use the case status lookup.

Most likely

Pick a date above and this fills in

When DOL is likely to decide, the range around it, and where the case sits in the queue.

Cohort figures are computed from 373,939 decided cases in DOL's disclosure files for fiscal years 2024 to 2026, through the third quarter of 2026. Queue movement is measured across 6 months of determinations, January 2026 to June 2026.

Email me when DOL reaches my month

One email when DOL's analyst-review queue reaches the month your case was filed, and nothing after it.

Month your case was filed

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One address watches one filing month per queue; a new month replaces the old one.

FAQs

How accurate is a PERM processing time estimate?

It’s a forecast over a queue, not a deadline, so it’s wrong by some margin every time. It’s best read as a range that narrows as DOL gets closer to your filing month. Public PERM estimators currently disagree with each other by around nine months on the same filing date, mostly because they assume different things about how fast DOL is moving.

Why do you show more than one number?

Because they measure different things. DOL's published average looks backwards at cases it has already closed, which drags it up with audited and long-running ones. A queue-advance figure looks forwards from how fast the queue is moving now.

Does DOL decide PERM cases in the order they were filed?

Broadly, but not strictly. DOL works through filing months in order. An audit, supervised recruitment, or a request for information takes a case out of that order and adds months, and none of those are predictable from a filing date.

My filing month has already passed and I have no decision. What does that mean?

It usually means the case is in audit, in supervised recruitment, or waiting on a response to a request for information. Those run on their own queues, which DOL publishes separately from analyst review. You do not have to guess which one: put the case number into the case status page and DOL's own status for it says which. If we do not already hold the number, we ask DOL for it right then.

The deadlines on your side of the process are fixed

Nobody can tell you exactly when DOL will decide. The recruitment window, the quiet period, the filing window and the I-140 deadline are arithmetic on your prevailing wage determination, and getting one wrong restarts the case.

Work out your deadlines

Case data: DOL quarterly disclosure files (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly

Processing times: DOL FLAG (flag.dol.gov/processingtimes) · data through Oct 5, 2026 · daily

What each source includes

Case data: Decided PERM cases only. A case still waiting isn't in here, so counts and durations describe finished cases.

Processing times: DOL's published queue position and average determination time. DOL's own figure, not ours.

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The rules behind these numbers

Waiting on a PERM case?

When it'll likely be decided
An email when DOL moves it