When immigration is core to how you hire, one-off filings stop being enough. De La Rosa Law partners with HR, mobility, and talent leaders to run immigration as a managed program — predictable PERM pipelines, defensible prevailing-wage strategy, calendar-driven H-1B planning, and audit-ready compliance across every hire. The result is fewer surprises, stronger approval posture, and a sponsorship process your recruiters and candidates can actually rely on.
This page is general legal information for employers evaluating an immigration partnership, not legal advice for any specific case. Sponsorship rules, government fees, and processing times change frequently; we verify the current posture for every matter and cite the official source for each figure below.
Key facts for employers (as of June 2026)
- H-1B registration fee: $215 per beneficiary registration for the FY 2027 cap, per USCIS. The annual cap remains 65,000 regular plus 20,000 advanced-degree (master's) numbers.
- $100,000 H-1B payment: New H-1B petitions filed on or after Sept. 21, 2025 must include an additional $100,000 payment as a condition of eligibility, with narrow national-interest exceptions, per the Sept. 19, 2025 Presidential Proclamation. Confirm scope on the live USCIS page before budgeting.
- Weighted H-1B selection: A final rule effective Feb. 27, 2026 enters wage Level IV registrations four times, Level III three times, Level II twice, and Level I once into the selection pool, per the Federal Register.
- PERM timing today: As of April 30, 2026, DOL was reviewing PERM analyst-stage cases at a February 2025 priority date and audited cases at a November 2025 date; prevailing-wage requests posted at a February 2026 receipt date, per flag.dol.gov. These shift monthly.
- I-9 retention: Form I-9 must be kept three years after the date of hire or one year after employment ends, whichever is later, per USCIS.
Why a dedicated firm partnership beats ad-hoc filings
Filing visas case-by-case works until volume, deadlines, and scrutiny collide. A managed partnership changes the operating model in ways that compound over time:
- One accountable team. The same attorneys learn your roles, org chart, and growth plan, so each new case starts from institutional knowledge rather than a blank intake form.
- Calendar-driven, not reactive. H-1B cap registration, PERM recruitment windows, and extension deadlines are mapped against your hiring plan months in advance, not chased at the last minute.
- Consistency that survives audits. Standardized job descriptions, wage methodology, and documentation make your filings defensible if the Department of Labor or USCIS looks closely.
- Cost visibility. Predictable scope and program-level reporting replace surprise invoices, which matters more than ever now that a single H-1B petition can carry six-figure government costs.
- A better candidate experience. Clear timelines and a single point of contact help you compete for talent and reduce the offer-stage attrition that comes from immigration uncertainty.
Managed PERM programs
PERM labor certification is the first step in most EB-2 and EB-3 green-card cases, and it is the most process-intensive part of employment-based immigration. Under the Department of Labor's PERM program, an employer must test the U.S. labor market and certify that there are not sufficient able, willing, qualified, and available U.S. workers for the position, and that hiring the foreign worker will not adversely affect wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.
For organizations sponsoring multiple roles, we run PERM as a repeatable pipeline rather than a series of disconnected filings:
- Role and wage architecture. We help define job titles, minimum requirements, and worksite locations that are both business-accurate and PERM-defensible, then secure a Prevailing Wage Determination from DOL's National Prevailing Wage Center before recruitment begins.
- Recruitment management. For professional positions, DOL requires a 30-day state workforce agency job order and two Sunday newspaper advertisements, plus three additional recruitment steps, conducted at least 30 but no more than 180 days before filing, per 20 CFR 656.17. We schedule and document each step so the recruitment report is audit-ready.
- Filing and tracking. We prepare and file Form ETA-9089 and maintain a live dashboard of every case's stage, so your team always knows what is pending, what is certified, and what is next.
- Downstream coordination. Once PERM is certified, we manage the I-140 immigrant petition and adjustment-of-status or consular steps so the green-card timeline stays on track.
Prevailing-wage strategy
Wage level drives almost everything else — eligibility, cost, recruitment exposure, and now even H-1B lottery odds. The offered wage must equal or exceed the prevailing wage for the occupation and area, and DOL currently uses a four-tier structure built on the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey.
A change to watch: On March 27, 2026, DOL published a proposed rule, Improving Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Foreign Nationals, that would raise Level I to roughly the 34th percentile and Level IV to the 88th percentile of OEWS data, with comments due May 26, 2026 (see the DOL announcement). This is a proposed rule and is not in effect; if finalized, it could materially raise required wages for H-1B and PERM. We model both the current and proposed structures so you can plan offers and budgets under either scenario, and we monitor the live rule status for you.
Get a workforce strategy session that maps your open roles to PERM, H-1B, and alternative visa pathways under current law.
H-1B and PERM calendar planning
The two highest-stakes immigration deadlines for most employers are the annual H-1B cap and the multi-month PERM recruitment cycle. Treating them as a calendar — not a fire drill — is where a partnership earns its value.
The H-1B cap cycle
The FY 2027 electronic registration period ran from noon Eastern on March 4 through noon Eastern on March 19, 2026, with a $215 fee per registration, per USCIS. Two structural changes make early planning essential:
- Weighted selection. Because higher wage levels now receive more entries in the pool, the wage level you assign to a role directly affects its selection odds. Job design and wage strategy should be settled well before the registration window opens.
- The $100,000 payment. With new H-1B petitions facing an additional $100,000 payment under the September 2025 Proclamation, employers increasingly evaluate whether O-1, L-1, E-2, or EB-2 NIW pathways fit a given hire before committing to the cap. We run that analysis role by role.
The PERM cycle
PERM recruitment and DOL review run on their own clock. With analyst-stage review at roughly a one-year-plus backlog and audited cases reviewed even later (per DOL processing times), green-card sponsorship has to begin long before an employee's work authorization or priority-date needs become urgent. We build a per-employee timeline that backs out from each deadline.
RFE and DOL-audit defense
Even well-prepared filings draw scrutiny. USCIS issues Requests for Evidence (RFEs) on H-1B and I-140 petitions, and DOL audits a share of PERM applications — sometimes randomly, sometimes for case-specific reasons. Because we standardize documentation from the start, our responses begin from a position of strength rather than reconstruction.
- H-1B and I-140 RFEs: specialty-occupation, beneficiary-qualification, employer-employee relationship, and ability-to-pay responses, assembled against the exact regulatory standard cited.
- PERM audits: recruitment-report defense, business-necessity justification for job requirements, and prevailing-wage support.
- Worksite and process inquiries: measured, well-evidenced responses that protect both the case and the broader program.
No firm can guarantee an outcome, and we never will. What a disciplined partnership provides is consistency and documentation that meaningfully improve your posture if a case is challenged.
I-9 and E-Verify compliance
Workforce immigration is not only about visas — every U.S. hire requires a properly completed Form I-9. All employers must complete Form I-9 for each person hired, retain it for three years after hire or one year after termination (whichever is later), and produce it on request from authorized officials, per USCIS. ICE can inspect I-9s and assess civil penalties for substantive violations and for knowingly employing unauthorized workers, with amounts adjusted annually, per ICE.
For employers using E-Verify, the form information is electronically compared against SSA and DHS records, per E-Verify. We help build I-9 protocols, run internal audits to surface and correct errors before the government does, and prepare your team for inspections.
Multi-hire workforce planning
When you are scaling a team — opening a U.S. office, building an engineering org, or onboarding a cohort of international hires — the right structure depends on roles, timelines, and risk tolerance. We compare pathways side by side so leadership can decide with full information.
| Pathway | Best-fit scenario | Key employer consideration |
|---|---|---|
| H-1B (cap) | Specialty-occupation roles you can plan a year ahead | Lottery uncertainty, weighted selection, and the $100,000 new-petition payment |
| L-1 | Transferring existing employees from an overseas affiliate | Requires a qualifying corporate relationship and one year of prior employment abroad |
| O-1 | Individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement | Evidence-intensive but not cap-subject; strong fit for senior or specialized talent |
| E-2 | Investors and staff from treaty-country businesses | Tied to a treaty nationality and a qualifying U.S. enterprise |
| PERM → EB-2/EB-3 | Permanent retention and green-card sponsorship | Longest timeline; requires labor-market testing and prevailing-wage compliance |
For each opening, we recommend the pathway — or combination — that balances speed, cost, and durability, and we sequence them so a temporary visa today supports a green card tomorrow.
Why De La Rosa Law
De La Rosa Law is a premium, bilingual immigration practice headquartered in Miami and serving employers nationwide. Founding attorney Oscar De La Rosa (Florida Bar No. 1019585) leads a team known for responsiveness, sophistication, and a service standard reflected in a 4.8-star rating on Google. We manage the full employment-immigration lifecycle for employers across technology, healthcare, hospitality, and construction, and our team communicates fluently in English and Spanish — Se Habla Español — so your stakeholders and candidates are never lost in translation.
