PERM Labor Certification Calculator

PERM (Program Electronic Review Management) labor certification is the DOL step of the U.S. employment-based green card process (filed on ETA Form 9089) that verifies no qualified, willing, and available U.S. worker exists for a position before an employer can sponsor a foreign worker for it. This calculator estimates the employer's direct cash costs, not the wage compliance rules themselves. Meets Prevailing Wage checks whether Offered Salary is at or above the DOL's Prevailing Wage determination for the role -- a requirement, not optional, since PERM cannot proceed on an offer below prevailing wage. Total Employer PERM Cost adds Recruitment Advertising Cost (the required job postings) and Attorney Fees, plus the expected value of a modeled $3,000 audit-response cost, scaled by Audit Probability (representing the added legal work a DOL audit response typically requires).

Total with I-140 Filing adds the current USCIS Form I-140 base filing fee of $715 and the mandatory USCIS Asylum Program Fee ($600 for most employers, $300 for a small employer, $0 for a nonprofit, set by Petitioner Type), the next-step petition filed once PERM is certified. Neither figure includes the wage itself (the offered salary is a payroll cost paid regardless of PERM), USCIS Form I-140 premium processing (an optional add-on if faster adjudication is wanted), or later adjustment-of-status filing fees, so treat this as a floor on direct process costs, not the total cost of the immigration case. If Offered Salary is below the prevailing wage, the shortfall is shown separately as Annual Salary Increase Needed rather than being folded into either cost total -- PERM cannot be filed on an offer below prevailing wage, so that raise is a precondition of the case rather than a fee within it. Expected Processing (Months) is informational only -- it is echoed back as Processing Time and does not enter any cost figure, since PERM's timeline drives business risk and H-1B max-out planning rather than a filing fee.