The United States Department of Labor has restored full functionality to its Foreign Labor Application Gateway system, enabling employers to once again submit H-1B Labor Condition Applications and PERM labor certification filings after a shutdown triggered by a federal funding lapse. The interruption, which lasted nearly a month beginning around September 30, temporarily stalled key employment-based immigration processes, affecting companies that depend on foreign skilled workers across sectors such as technology and healthcare.
With the resumption of services, employers can now file new applications, update pending ones, and monitor case progress as normal through the online FLAG portal. The reinstated operations also apply to the Permanent Labor Certification Program, commonly known as PERM, which serves as the first step for sponsoring foreign professionals for permanent residency in the United States. These certification processes form a core compliance mechanism ensuring that hiring foreign talent does not negatively impact compensation or working conditions for U.S. workers.
This restart carries particular relevance for Indian nationals, who account for a significant majority of H-1B visa recipients and frequently face prolonged waits in both temporary and permanent immigration pathways. The extended outage added pressure to an already congested system.
According to an official notice issued by the Department of Labor, all functions of the FLAG platform are operational, and users may proceed with preparing and submitting applications as well as receiving updates and issuing responses related to pending cases. The associated SeasonalJobs portal has also reopened. Although the agency did not explicitly attribute the shutdown to the government funding standoff, reporting has linked the disruption to the lapse during the federal shutdown period.
In its communication, the Department emphasized that officials are working to normalize operations but cautioned employers and applicants to expect delays due to the backlog created during the outage. The shutdown halted filings for prevailing wage determinations in addition to LCAs and PERM applications, compounding existing processing delays that had already left some cases pending since early 2024. Authorities acknowledged that higher-than-usual assistance requests and case volumes may result in longer processing times as the system transitions back to full activity.
