# Labor Certification Process and Enforcement for Temporary Employment in Occupations Other Than Agriculture or Registered Nursing in the United States (H-2B Workers), and Other Technical Changes
> **Wage and Hour Division** · Final rule. · Published 2008-12-19 · Effective 2009-01-18 · 73 FR 78020
## Document
- **Document number:** E8-29995
- **Category:** wage-hour
- **Sub-agency:** Wage and Hour Division
- **Federal Register citation:** 73 FR 78020
- **CFR reference:** 20 CFR 655
- **Publication date:** 2008-12-19
- **Effective date:** 2009-01-18
## Abstract

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) of the Department of Labor (DOL or the Department) is amending its regulations to modernize the procedures for the issuance of labor certifications to employers sponsoring H-2B nonimmigrants for admission to perform temporary nonagricultural labor or services and the procedures for enforcing compliance with attestations made by those employers. Specifically, this Final Rule re-engineers the application filing and review process by centralizing processing and by enabling employers to conduct pre-filing recruitment of United States (U.S.) workers. In addition, the rule enhances the integrity of the H-2B program through the introduction of post-adjudication audits and procedures for penalizing employers who fail to comply with program requirements. This rule also makes technical changes to the regulations relating to both the H-1B program and the permanent labor certification program to reflect operational changes stemming from this regulation. Although Congress has conferred the statutory authority to enforce H-2B program requirements on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), recent discussions between DHS and the Department have yielded an agreement for the delegation of H-2B enforcement authority from DHS to the Department. This Final Rule contains the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) regulations establishing the H-2B enforcement procedures that the Department will institute pursuant to that agreement. Separately, this Final Rule institutes conditions and procedures for the debarment of employers, attorneys, and agents participating in the H-2B foreign labor certification process. As discussed further below, the Department intends to exercise its inherent authority under case law and general principles of program administration to determine what entities practice before it.

## Source
- [Federal Register document](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2008/12/19/E8-29995/labor-certification-process-and-enforcement-for-temporary-employment-in-occupations-other-than)
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