PERM REFERENCE INTERVIEW GUIDELINES
University Professor – Regular PERM Process
The labor certification process requires the employer to conduct a good faith recruitment campaign and to evaluate all applicants based on the University’s minimum education and experience requirements for the position. Applicants must be interviewed unless it is obvious from the face of the resume alone that the foreign professor is more qualified than the U.S. worker who applied for the position. If you are uncertain whether the applicant’s resume is sufficient for making such a determination, an interview is appropriate. If it is possible that the candidate may be qualified for the position although the resume is silent as to some potential skills, qualifications, or experience, an interview is appropriate to ensure full and fair consideration of potentially qualified applicants.
When interviewing applicants, please note the following guidelines and requirements:
1. The University representative conducting the interview should be the same University representative who normally conducts applicant interviews for this position and/or similar positions within the University.
2. All potentially qualified applicants must be contacted for interview within a reasonable period of time. We recommend that you contact all such applicants as soon as reasonably possible (within two weeks of receipt of the resume/application is recommended) in order to schedule an interview. Interviews should be conducted promptly.
3. You must document your efforts to contact the applicants and should do so on the Applicant Evaluation Form.
4. In regards to whether the applicant is a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident, (do not expect this information to be volunteered) you can ask: "This position is only open to United States citizens, lawful permanent residents, temporary residents under the amnesty programs, and refugees or asylees. Are you now one of these?" Alternatively, you can ask: "Are you currently authorized to work for all employers in the United States on a full-time basis, or only for your current employer?"
We recommend that one of the two above-stated questions be put to ALL job applicants, whether or not the job opportunity involves labor certification. At the very least, such a question should be asked of all labor certification applicants rather than to just those whom you suspect can be disqualified for not coming within one of the enumerated classes.
You cannot: (a) Ask applicants to which one of the four categories of protected individuals they belong. (b) Ask for their I-551 as evidence of Permanent Resident status or their United States passport/birth certificate as evidence of United States citizenship status. (c) Ask whether they are authorized to work for "permanent employment." (d) Ask how they obtained whatever status claimed. Be aware that an applicant who is a permanent resident asylee, refugee, or a temporary resident (legalization/amnesty) is treated the same as a citizen by the Department of Labor.
5. You may disqualify a U.S. worker because he or she is not as qualified as the foreign national professor in the position. The University has to establish that the foreign professor is more qualified than each U.S. worker who applied for the job opportunity.
6. You may not tell an applicant that the position has already been filled or that the interview is being conducted in connection with the labor certification process.
7. You may not enlist the assistance, comment, or participation of the foreign national beneficiary during the PERM recruitment and candidate evaluation process. The foreign national beneficiary must not review resumes, interview applicants, sit in on applicant interviews, test applicants, evaluate an applicant’s credentials, comment on an applicant’s credentials, or take any part in the recruitment and evaluation process.
8. You may not reject an applicant for unlawful reasons, such as race, religion, sex, age, or national origin.
9. If you normally pay expenses associated with the travel to an in-person interview, you must apply the same University policy with respect to interviews conducted during the PERM candidate evaluation process.
10. If you normally pay relocation expenses for employees in the same or similar positions within the University, you may not reject a candidate who is unwilling to pay his or her own relocation expenses.
11. If you paid the interview expenses and/or relocation expenses for the foreign national beneficiary, you may not reject a U.S. worker for unwillingness to pay his or her own costs relating to in-person interviews and/or relocation expenses.
12. References: If you normally request references during the candidate evaluation process, you may do so when evaluating candidates during the PERM recruitment process.
13. Testing Subject-Matter Knowledge/Skills: If you normally test applicants for their subject-matter knowledge during the candidate evaluation process, you may do so when evaluating candidates during the PERM recruitment process. You should apply the same test standards and procedures as you normally would and must evaluate the test results as you normally would.
14. Background Checks: If you normally perform background checks for this position within the University, you may do so in connection with this process, but only within the time frames and parameters under which you normally perform them. This means that, if you normally perform a background check only after the decision to hire has been made (normal), you may not perform a background check on an applicant during or prior to the interview process when evaluating applicants responding to PERM recruitment.
15. Drug Tests: If you normally require drug tests for this position within the University, you may do so in connection with this process, but only within the time frames and parameters under which you normally require them. This means that, if you normally require a drug test only after the decision to hire has been made (normal), you may not require a drug test during or prior to the interview process when evaluating applicants responding to PERM recruitment.
16. You may disqualify applicants for lawful, job-related reasons likely to adversely impact job performance. The responsibility for all candidate evaluations and employment decisions remains with the employer at all times. We are not able to interview or consider U.S. workers for the job offered to the foreign national beneficiary.
MAINTAINING REQUIRED DOCUMENTS
In addition to documentation of all recruitment efforts, employers must document all recruitment results, and must maintain all such documentation for five years following the date of filing the PERM Application. The following documents must be retained:
1. Resumes of all applicants responding to PERM recruitment efforts.
2. Applicant Evaluation Forms for each applicant responding to PERM recruitment efforts.
3. Any other notes or information collected or created in connection with the evaluation of applicants responding to PERM recruitment efforts.
If you have any questions regarding the evaluation/interview process, please let me know.