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ImmIGRATION JULY 23, 2021 | The Indian Eye 42
No longer in use:
how Changes in SOC Systems affect
employment-based Immigration
Cyrus D. Mehta and of Labor. Most notably, rect SOC code for em- system is updated? The code was replaced by
SOC codes are used to ployment-based peti- SOC has been revised a different title and/or
Isabel rajabzadeh*
categorize nonimmigrant tions, one must compare four times: 1980, 2000, SOC code number. The
he Standard Oc- and immigrant work- the proffered position’s and then again ten years crosswalk from the 2000
cupation Classi- ers on the Permanent job duties and its require- later in 2010. The most SOC to the 2010 SOC
Tfication (SOC) Employment Certifica- ments against the system. recent update is the 2018 can be found here. The
is a federal statistical tion (“PERM” or Form In addition, the require- SOC system, which was crosswalk from the 2010
standard used by federal ETA 9089, used to file ment to pay prevailing deemed to be a “multi- SOC to the 2018 SOC
agencies to classify work- most I-140s), the Labor wages as a minimum year process” by the U.S. can be found here. As
ers into occupational Condition Application salary is mandatory for Bureau of Labor Statis- stated above, the OWL
categories. The Office of (“LCA”, necessary to file some employment-based tics. In November 2020, fails to keep up with
Management and Bud- H-1Bs and other visas) visas. In order to deter- the O*NET 25.1 Data- the changes in the SOC
get (OMB) coordinates and the ETA 9142B for mine the prevailing wage base incorporated the codes. This causes huge
the Federal statistical sys- H-2B workers. The SOC of a geographic area, one O*NET-SOC 2019 Tax- discrepancies. Although
tem, including the SOC. system was created in or- must look up the SOC onomy, which aligned not always detrimental
The SOC Policy Com- der to facilitate job classi- code in the Foreign La- with the 2018 SOC sys- to a case, it may cause
mittee assists the OMB fication. It therefore col- bor Certification Data tem. It stated, “updates unnecessary delays such
in the SOC revision pro- lects occupational data Center Online Wage Li- and added new and a Request For Evidence
cess, and is comprised of and enables comparison brary (“OWL”) which is emerging occupations (“RFE”).
Federal agencies includ- of occupations across run by the U.S. Depart- ensure that the O*NET- For instance, “15-
ing the Bureau of Labor data sets. ment of Labor. SOC taxonomy not only 1031, Computer Soft-
Statistics, Department In assigning the cor- According to the De- represents the SOC ware Engineers, Appli-
partment of Labor, the structure, but reflects cations” is no longer in
SOC serves as the frame- changes occurring in the use and it was replaced
work for information be- world of work due to by “15-1132 Software
ing gathered through the advancing technologies, Developers, Applica-
Department of Labor’s innovative business prac- tions” in the 2010 SOC
Occupational Informa- tices, and the new organi- system. Then, the 2018
tion Network (O*NET). zation of work.” Howev- SOC system changed the
The O*NET database er, the OWL still has not SOC code again to, “15-
includes detailed infor- caught up with all of the 1252, Software Develop-
mation on tasks, skills, SOC codes listed in the ers.” But what happens
tools used, credentials, 2018 SOC system. Al- when a PERM was filed
and other information though the OWL states it in 2011 which used the
associated with the oc- integrated O*NET 25.3 SOC code based on the
cupations. Much like the on July 1, 2021, (which is 2010 SOC system? Then,
OWL, the information later than version 25.1) it 10 years later, the foreign
found on O*NET is list- still does not reflect all of national wants to down-
ed by the occupation’s the changed SOC codes grade their I-140 to take
SOC codes. in the 2018 SOC system. advantage of EB-3 pri-
m of Many may not real- ority dates? Which SOC
CYRUS D. MEHTA & PARTNERS PLLC ize the SOC codes exist, the problem code should be used on
however, its use is in- In an effort to tran- the I-140 form? Use of
tegral to some employ- sition between the dif- the 15-1031 SOC code
ment-based visas and ferent SOC systems and would patch the previ-
therefore, can result in a SOC codes, “crosswalks” ously filed PERM, how-
denial if not used proper- were developed to por- ever, it is no longer in use
ly. These codes are based tray the changes of that so that may raise flags.
on statistics, however, year’s update. The cross- Use of the new SOC
2 6th Floor
what happens when the walks show which SOC code may be effective,
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