U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has confirmed that there have been no changes to supporting documentation required for I-140 petition filings based on the new Form ETA-9089 certifications in the Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG) system. The required documentation normally included to support Form I-140 immigrant petitions, such as records pertaining to the employer's ability to pay the offered salary and the beneficiary's qualifications, remains the same.
Certifications of the new Form ETA-9089 include two documents: (1) the completed ETA-9089 Form, including appendices with the certification validity dates and (2) the two-page Form ETA-9089 – Final Determination, titled "Permanent Employment Certification Approval" also noted as the "PERM ETA-9089 Approval Appendix" in the approval email. This document includes four sections:
- Section A, containing information such as the case number, the petitioner's information name, the beneficiary's name and position title, and the Department of Labor (DOL) certifying officer's signature;
- Section B, containing the foreign worker's declaration requiring a signature;
- Section C, containing the attorney's or representative's declaration and requiring a signature; and
- Section D, the employer's declaration, requiring a signature.
USCIS has confirmed that the petitioner must submit the Final Determination document with all required signatures with the I-140 petition but is not required to submit the Form ETA-9089, nor the Form ETA-9141, as the DOL will transmit data contained in those documents to the USCIS system.
Schedule A certification and National Interest Waiver filings are exceptions to the above. For those I-140 petitions, the petitioner must still complete and submit the Form ETA-9089, Appendix A, and other appendices as well as the signed Final Determination document and the certified/approved Form ETA-9141 where applicable.
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