The U.S. Department of Labor is taking an average of 336 days to review PERM labor certification applications. PERM is used in the employment-based green-card process for certain foreign workers. The agency also reports a backlog of more than 45,000 requests for prevailing-wage determinations. Those requests establish the wage rate for a job in a particular area before an employer can proceed with certification. Long review times and unresolved wage cases are adding months to the immigration process for affected applicants. The Department’s figures point to an overloaded administrative system with a growing queue of employers and workers waiting for decisions.