BALCA Upholds Denial Due to Illegible Newspaper Tearsheets

From USADNEWS Volume XIV, Issue 1

A recent decision by the Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) underscores the importance of maintaining adequate documentation of the recruitment advertising completed for a labor certification application. The regulation at 20 C.F.R. § 656.17(e)(1)(i)(b)(3) provides that “Documentation of this step can be satisfied by furnishing copies of the newspaper pages in which the advertisements appeared or proof of publication furnished by the newspaper.” Employers must maintain all supporting documentation to furnish in case of an audit, according to the regulations at 20 C.F.R. § 656.17(a)(3) and 20 C.F.R. § 656.17(e)(1).

In the Matter of Prelude Systems, Inc. (December 2019), the employer submitted copies of the newspaper advertisements that ran in the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Pilot. The Certifying Officer (CO) denied the application because the copies were illegible and made it impossible to verify the information in the advertisements. The employer requested reconsideration and submitted enlarged copies of the newspaper tearsheets. However, BALCA upheld the CO’s determination that the enlarged copies represented new documentation that had not been initially provided and therefore could not be accepted on reconsideration. The denial was consequently upheld.

USADWEB  understands the sensitive degree of accuracy that is required in documenting the recruitment process. We provide industry standard proofs of publication to document every advertisement we place for clients. This includes newspaper tearsheets, notarized radio affidavits, and dated web prints. At the conclusion of the recruitment process, USADWEB  always provides pdf files of all documentation so that you can conveniently save these files in case of an audit. Files can then be printed and enlarged as needed so that adequate documentation can be submitted with an audit response.