Reviewed by the PERM Processing Time Editorial Team · Updated July 31, 2026
What stages belong in a PERM timeline?
A PERM timeline usually begins before the ETA-9089 filing. It can include a prevailing wage determination (PWD), recruitment, PERM filing, analyst review, conditional review branches, a final PERM action, and a possible Form I-140 next step. The tracker above turns dates and a status you provide into a stage graph so the sequence is easier to read. It does not turn that sequence into a promised completion date.
The legal and procedural framework comes from the Department of Labor. The DOL Permanent Labor Certification program page provides the official overview, and 20 CFR Part 656 contains the governing regulation. This independent PERM timeline is an organizer for user-provided facts and public context, not a substitute for those sources.
Prevailing wage determination
The PWD stage establishes wage information used in the employer’s process. Initial OEWS, initial Non-OEWS, redetermination, and Center Director Review requests have different public queue rows. If you need to compare a PWD request date with the correct row, use the dedicated PWD Processing Time tool and then carry the relevant dates into the Full Timeline.
Recruitment and ETA-9089 filing
Recruitment belongs before PERM filing in the normal sequence. The tracker records recruitment start and completion dates only when you provide them; it does not decide whether a recruitment step was sufficient or timely. The ETA-9089 filing date is the controlling date for Analyst Review and Audit Review queue comparisons shown by this site.
Review, decision, and a possible I-140 step
After filing, the current path may be Analyst Review or a conditional branch such as Audit Review, RFI Issued, or Reconsideration Review. A final PERM label may be Certified, Denied, or Withdrawn. Certification may be followed by a separate Form I-140 petition, described on the official USCIS Form I-140 page. The I-140 is not a DOL PERM status and should not be treated as another PERM queue.
How does the PERM timeline tracker work?
Choose Quick mode when you have a filing date and, optionally, a supported current status. Choose Full Timeline when you also want to record PWD, recruitment, audit, RFI, reconsideration, or decision dates. The generated graph validates chronology and labels each node based on the information available.
This site does not retrieve or verify an individual case. It does not connect to FLAG with your case number, inspect notices, or infer missing events. For identical supplied dates and status, a fixed as-of date, the same active official snapshot and disclosure dataset, and the same calculation version, the calculation is deterministic. Waiting days and the generated timestamp change as the calendar date changes; public context can also change when a newer verified dataset becomes active.
When should I use Quick mode?
Quick mode answers a narrow organization question: where does a filing date and selected status sit in the standard stage sequence? It is useful when you do not have every earlier date. A missing status remains unselected rather than guessed, and unavailable official context remains unavailable.
When should I use Full Timeline?
Full Timeline is useful when you have reliable dates from the employer’s or representative’s records. Enter only events that actually occurred. Optional dates add detail, but they should not be estimated merely to fill the graph. Chronology validation prevents later stages from appearing before their prerequisites without warning.
What does the generated result include?
The result may show elapsed waiting days, current stage, completed and upcoming nodes, conditional branches, official queue context, historical observed statistics, and warnings. Not every result includes every field. A missing required queue or compatible historical cohort is reported as unavailable instead of being replaced with a generic duration.
What do Official, Observed, Calculated, and User-provided mean?
Official identifies a value published by DOL, such as a current queue month or recent average. Observed identifies a statistic computed from completed public OFLC disclosure records under the site’s cohort rules. Calculated identifies deterministic calendar math, such as elapsed days or a month gap. User-provided identifies a date or status that this site did not independently verify.
Those provenance labels are central to reading a PERM timeline correctly. An official queue does not validate a user-provided filing date. An observed median does not predict the current case. A calculated elapsed-day count proves only the interval between two dates. See how our data and calculations work for snapshot activation, freshness, fallback, and cohort rules.
Why are there no exact completion dates?
The official DOL processing-times page publishes operational queue information and recent averages, not a guaranteed completion date for each case. Workload, audits, requests, responses, reconsideration, and case-specific facts can change the path. Adding an average to a filing date would present uncertainty as precision, so this tracker does not do it.
How should historical statistics be read?
Historical statistics summarize completed disclosure records that meet minimum cohort rules. They describe the distribution of a defined past group and may include a median, middle 50 percent, and 90th percentile. They can provide scale, but they exclude still-pending cases and may lag current operations. The reporting period and sample size matter as much as the number.
Which events can change a PERM timeline?
An audit adds an audit-response and review path. An RFI introduces a request and possible response obligation. Reconsideration uses its own request date for queue context. Denial and withdrawal end the displayed PERM path, while certification opens a possible separate immigration filing stage. The graph treats these as conditional branches because not every case experiences them.
Audit Review and RFI
Audit Review is not simply a longer Analyst Review bar. It represents a distinct procedural path and uses the relevant public audit queue definition. An RFI label says that a request was issued; it does not reveal the request, show whether a response is complete, or establish a deadline. Confirm notice details with the employer or qualified counsel.
Reconsideration Review
Reconsideration should be anchored to the reconsideration request date when that date is available. The original filing date remains useful history, but substituting it for the request date distorts stage-level context. The tracker warns when the required reconsideration date is missing.
Certified, Denied, or Withdrawn
Certified means the labor-certification stage reached certification based on the status you selected. Denied and Withdrawn are different terminal outcomes. The tracker cannot determine appeal options, refiling strategy, deadlines, or the reason for an outcome. Those are case-specific legal questions outside a public-data tool.
Is my PERM timeline saved or sent anywhere?
When you select Generate Timeline, the dates and status in the form are sent to this site’s server for validation and calculation. Those raw inputs are not persisted to the site’s database, and the application does not create a case profile. The returned result stays in memory by default. Saving is opt-in and uses browser storage on that device. You can clear a saved Timeline, and incompatible saved data is not silently guessed or migrated. A normalized status imported from PERM Case Status contains no case number.
Do not enter names, addresses, employer or attorney details, receipt numbers, signatures, or notice text. The tracker needs stage dates and a supported status, not identifying documents. It does not submit information to DOL or USCIS.
How should I use this PERM timeline with official sources?
First, verify dates and status against the employer’s or representative’s records. Second, generate the PERM timeline and check that the chronology matches those records. Third, open the DOL processing table to verify its source date. Fourth, treat queue context and historical results as background, not as an individual promise. Fifth, confirm any notice, deadline, or filing decision with the responsible professional.
For current PERM queue comparisons, use PERM Processing Time. For the wage stage, use PWD Processing Time. For an official individual status, use the DOL FLAG case status search yourself and then interpret the label on PERM Case Status. This page is not affiliated with the U.S. government and is not legal advice.