User:Vipul/Labor Condition Application

The Labor Condition Application (LCA) is an application that needs to be approved by the United States Department of Labor by prospective employers on behalf of workers applying for work authorization for the non-immigrant statuses H-1B, H-1B1 (a variant of H-1B for people from Singapore and Chile) and E-3.

Process

Submission

The recommended process for submission of LCAs is through the Department of Labor's online system iCert that is available at all times.

Approval

The United States Department of Labor typically takes up to 7 days to approve or reject a LCA. Rejection is accompanied by an explicit listing of problems with the applications. The employer may resubmit the LCA after addressing the problems.

Relation with the application process for employment authorization and getting a visa

A LCA petition approved by the United States Department of Labor must be submitted as part of the application for work authorization for H-1B, H-1B1, or E-3 status. This is true both for people applying for their first H-1B work authorization and for people transferring to a different job. LCA petitions can be submitted year-round. However, for those applying for their first work authorization under the capped H-1B, where applications can generally be made only in the first few weeks of April because of caps for every fiscal year, they need to make sure the LCA petition is approved in time for the H-1B application cycle.