A PERM status check is one of the most searched questions among employment-based green card applicants, and the answer depends heavily on who is doing the searching. The Department of Labor does not give sponsored workers their own login, so most of the confusion around checking a pending case comes down to understanding who actually holds the keys to that information.
Who Can Actually Check a PERM Case
PERM, short for Program Electronic Review Management, is the labor certification process an employer must complete before sponsoring a foreign worker for an EB-2 or EB-3 green card. The case is filed on Form ETA-9089, and the worker’s name appears on that form, but the filing itself belongs to the employer.
That distinction matters because the Department of Labor’s Foreign Labor Application Gateway, known as FLAG, only grants case-level access to the party that submitted the application. In practice, that means one of three people can log in and see where things stand: the employer’s immigration attorney, an HR or global mobility contact registered on the company’s FLAG account, or the authorized company representative who signed the filing.
Sponsored employees do not receive a personal login or a tracking number the way applicants do in many other visa processes. If a worker wants an update, asking the employer or the attorney handling the case remains the most direct route, and it is a completely reasonable request to make.
Using the FLAG Case Status Search Tool
The Department of Labor does offer a public-facing option called the Case Status Search tool, accessible through the FLAG website. This tool is most useful once a case has already reached a final decision, since it can look up certified or denied applications using the case number.
Every PERM case is assigned a number that starts with the letter G, formatted as G-XXX-XXXXX-XXXXXX. This number is issued once the ETA-9089 is accepted into the system, and it is the only identifier the search tool will accept. Employers typically share this number with the sponsored worker in an acceptance email once the case is filed, so it is worth requesting early rather than after months of waiting.
Applications filed before May 31, 2023 fall under a separate legacy system, the PERM Online system at plc.doleta.gov, rather than FLAG. Anyone trying to check an older case number should confirm which system applies before assuming the FLAG search will return a result.
What the Published Processing Times Show
Because individual case lookups are limited while a PERM is still pending, most applicants rely on the Department of Labor’s published processing time data to estimate where their filing likely sits in the queue. The Office of Foreign Labor Certification updates these figures monthly, typically during the first full work week of the month.
As of the most recent update covering July 2026, the average processing time for a standard analyst review stood at 372 calendar days. Cases selected for audit take considerably longer, with the most recently reported audit review average sitting around 290 days on top of the standard timeline, meaning audited cases can add six months or more to an already lengthy wait.
These figures reflect national averages rather than guarantees for any single case. The Department of Labor processes several filing months concurrently rather than finishing one month’s cohort before starting the next, and adjudication no longer proceeds strictly in alphabetical order by employer name, so two cases filed in the same week can clear at noticeably different paces.
Understanding the Earlier Stage: Prevailing Wage Determination
Before a PERM case even reaches the recruitment and filing stage, the employer typically needs a Prevailing Wage Determination from the National Prevailing Wage Center. This earlier step runs on its own separate timeline, tracked under Form ETA-9141 rather than ETA-9089, and it moves independently of the PERM queue itself.
As of the June 30, 2026 update, the National Prevailing Wage Center was working through wage determination requests received in April 2026 for cases based on Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics data, and March 2026 for determinations relying on alternate wage sources such as a collective bargaining agreement or an employer-provided survey. Non-OEWS determinations generally move more slowly than OEWS-based ones.
Recruitment for the PERM cannot begin until this wage determination is finalized. If an employer says a case is “in progress,” it is worth clarifying which stage they mean, since a filing still waiting on its prevailing wage determination has not yet started the labor certification clock at all.
What an Audit Notice Means
Seeing a case flagged for audit can understandably cause alarm, but an audit is not the same as a finding against the employer or the worker. The Department of Labor selects some PERM applications at random for audit and flags others based on specific elements of the filing.
An audit typically requires the employer to submit additional documentation supporting the recruitment process, prevailing wage compliance, and other filing details. While this step does extend the overall timeline, it does not by itself indicate a problem with the underlying application. Employers working with experienced immigration counsel often navigate the audit response process without it affecting the eventual outcome.
What Happens After Certification
Once the Department of Labor certifies a PERM application, the employer becomes eligible to file Form I-140, the Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. This is the next formal step in the employment-based green card process and moves the case out of the Department of Labor’s system entirely.
Workers who receive word that their PERM has been certified should request a copy of the certified ETA-9089 for their own records, since this document becomes relevant for the I-140 filing and any future green card processing.
If a Case Appears to Be Taking Longer Than Expected
Applicants sometimes find that their filing month has fallen well behind the currently posted processing queue. If a case was filed more than three months before the date reflected in the Department of Labor’s most recent monthly update, the agency directs employers to contact the Office of Foreign Labor Certification’s PERM Helpdesk directly for a case-specific inquiry, rather than relying solely on the published averages.
It is worth remembering that once a case reaches a final decision, that record becomes part of the Department of Labor’s quarterly public disclosure data, which means the outcome eventually becomes visible through public datasets even for cases that were difficult to track while pending.
Final Thoughts
Checking a PERM status ultimately comes down to knowing where the information actually lives. Pending cases sit behind the employer’s or attorney’s FLAG login, decided cases can often be located through the public Case Status Search tool using the case number, and the published monthly processing times offer the best available estimate for anyone still waiting in the queue. Staying in touch with whoever filed the case remains the most reliable way to get a real answer while the process plays out.
Have you checked your PERM status recently? Share your experience or questions in the comments below, and stay tuned for updates as processing times continue to shift throughout 2026.