Rep Newsletters: New DOL System for Employment Certifications – FLAG

Department of Labor (DOL) has developed a new system for requesting prevailing wage determinations via Form ETA 9141 (Application for Prevailing Wage Determination). The Foreign Labor Application Gateway (or FLAG) will replace iCert in an effort to modernize and to improve customer service. You can access FLAG at https://flag.dol.gov and will need a login.gov username and password to enter the site. Any ETA 9141 forms for H-1Bs that were submitted before June 10, 2019 will remain in the iCert system. All new ETA 9141s must be submitted through FLAG. DOL will eventually shut down iCert completely so if you have any prevailing wage determinations in that system that you will need to reference in the future, be sure to print them or save the PDF files as soon as possible. DOL has not yet announced when this will happen, but it is likely to be sometime in the late fall or early winter – after all currently pending determinations have been issued and once all functions of FLAG are active.

Like in iCert, you are able to create a network for your institution and grant other staff access. This will be useful in the event a staff member submits an ETA 9141 and action needs to be taken on the case when the individual is out of the office. You are also able to create a template for both an employer and (soon) a worksite. This allows you to prepopulate information on the institution such as name, address, and FEIN. The form itself is also the same, so you will be submitting the same information on the Form ETA 9141 as before. Please note that Form ETA 9141 is in the process of an update. The comment period for the proposed revision has closed. As of July 1, 2019 the updated form has not yet been published for use. The proposed form is here for your review. As you will see, there aren’t many changes, but there are a few additional details that are now required such as an SOC code for those a beneficiary will supervise, the reason for requesting an ACWIA wage, and details on travel needs. A brief overview of the proposed changes are here.

A few notes from a first attempt at submitting an ETA 9141:

1. A confirmation email is sent between 5 minutes and several hours after submission. In the interim, the request is listed as “initiated” rather than “in process” and there is a temporary number in lieu of the P number. Once the case has been officially submitted by the system, you will get an email notification and the case number will be updated to reflect the P number on the FLAG website.
2. FLAG is slightly slower than iCert when moving from page-to-page, but in general it works well and is similar to iCert.

DOL has had a few stakeholder meetings and webinars surrounding FLAG, and we expect that this will continue as they roll-out additional processes and features of FLAG. DOL will announce additional webinars and other important information on the announcements section of the FLAG website.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at theresa.johnson@northwestern.edu.
​
Theresa Johnson
IEI Scholar Rep