The United States has a lot of governmental organizations. A country this big obviously requires a fair amount of organization and management, but sometimes it can hard to know who does what and why. When it takes months to receive a form from a governmental department it is easy to make the assumption that America is buried in pounds of bureaucratic fat. Is this actually true? The reality of the situation is that a country of over 300 million people needs a strong government that has every little bit of organization and management under control. Taking away some of the various government agencies and offices would only lead to more unknowns, which is not helpful to anyone.
Perhaps the best example of a large and effective government body is the domain of national security. In the executive branch, under the listing of the Department of Defense, there are over thirty different offices or Departments, all with very different roles to fill, but all staying in constant contact to ensure appropriate action if required. The primary reason why the DOD operates so effectively is that the roles of each office are clearly defined.
The Department of Homeland Security is not too different from the DOD. The Department of
Homeland Security is responsible for maintaining peace and security in the country. It is their job to manage the border crossings between Mexico-US and Canada-US, not to mention keeping a close watch on cybersecurity, natural or human disaster management, human trafficking, privacy, as well as job security and immigration enforcement.
These last two topics of responsibility pertain directly to PERM applications. Under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security is the US Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency. The USCIS is responsible for dealing with all matters pertaining to foreign nationals in America. They will help direct people to get any temporary or permanent status applications in, oversee PERM applications and help steer them to completion (like immigration advertising specifics), as well as provide services of any kind to help newcomers adjust to the country.
The USCIS only deals with PERM applications once the employer and foreign national have been issued application certification. The role of issuing the certification falls to the Department of Labor, who will only issue it once they have deemed that no Americans are available to take the job. Perhaps this interconnectivity of departments is why America is gaining a reputation for having a confusing bureaucracy. Just as long as people know which department to contact there will be no confusion. The USCIS has some legal jurisdiction over the assessment of the application alone, but it will always come back to the Department of Labor at the end of the day. Interested parties should gain all the information they can from the USCIS website and contact them with any questions before beginning an application.
