Employers need to apprise applicants of the job opportunity. The regulation does not require employers to run advertisements enumerating every job duty, job requirement, and condition of employment. As long as the employer can demonstrate a logical nexus between the advertisement and the position listed on the employer’s application, the employer will meet the requirement of apprising applicants of the job opportunity. An advertisement that includes a description of the vacancy, the name of the employer, the geographic area of employment, and the means to contact the employer to apply may be sufficient to apprise potentially qualified applicants of the job opportunity.

NOTE: While employers will have the option to place broadly written advertisements with few details regarding job duties and requirements, they must prepare a recruitment report that addresses all minimally qualified applicants for the job opportunity. If an employer places a generic advertisement, the employer may receive a large volume of applicants, all of whom must be addressed in the recruitment report. Employers placing general advertisements may wish to include a job identification code or other information to assist the employer in tracking applicants to the job opportunity.

Yes, if an employer wishes to include additional information about the job opportunity, such as the minimum education and experience requirements or specific job duties, the employer may do so, provided these requirements also appear on the ETA Form 9089.

No, the address does not need to be included. However, advertisements must indicate the geographic area of employment with enough specificity to apprise applicants of any travel requirements and where applicants will likely have to reside to perform the job opportunity. Employers are not required to specify the job site, unless the job site is unclear; for example, if applicants must respond to a location other than the job site (e.g., company headquarters in another state) or if the employer has multiple job sites.

No, the employer’s physical address does not need to be included in the advertisement. Employers may designate a central office or post office box to receive resumes from applicants, provided the advertisement makes clear where the work will be performed.

No, the offered wage does not need to be included in the advertisement, but if a wage rate is included, it can not be lower than the prevailing wage rate.

As with all the recruitment requirements, the purpose of requiring the employer to use three additional recruitment steps is to ensure that the greatest number of able, willing, qualified, and available U.S. workers are apprised of the job opportunity. It should be noted that each of the steps may target slightly different applicant populations. Using at least three of the additional steps normally used by businesses to recruit workers is a means of apprising a greater number of U.S. applicants of the job opportunity and more adequately substantiates an employer’s claim there are no available U.S. workers for the job offer.

Where the “Kellogg” language is required by regulation to appear on the application, it is not required to appear in the advertisements used to notify potential applications of the employment opportunity. However, the placement of the language on the application is simply a mechanism to reflect compliance with a substantive, underlying requirement of the program. Therefore, if during an audit or at another point in the review of the application it becomes apparent that one or more U.S. workers with a suitable combination of education, training or experience were rejected, the application will be denied, whether or not the Kellogg language appears in the application.

For professional positions, the regulations at 20 CFR 656.17(e)(1)(ii)(D) permit, as an additional recruitment step, optional pre-filing recruitment at or through a college or university placement office. The preamble to the regulation (69 Fed. Reg. 77325, 77345 (Dec. 27, 2004)) assumed that this option would be used only if the employment opportunity requires a degree but no experience. The Department has examined this policy in light of the fact that many college and university placement offices maintain job listings that are used by alumni with experience as well as recent college or university graduates. Consequently, the job opportunities requiring experience are included in the listings making campus placement offices a viable recruitment source for professional job requiring experience as well as not requiring experience. As a result, the Department is clarifying its position and permitting this option to be used for employment opportunities even if the job requires experience in addition to the degree.

No, the employer is not required to include the statement on the application if the employer has indicated it requires experience in an alternate occupation and not in the job offered. The “any suitable combination of experience of education, training, or experience is acceptable” statement is only required where there are primary as well as alternative requirements and then only if the foreign worker is already employed by the employer and the foreign worker does not meet the primary job requirements and only potentially qualifies for the job by virtue of the employer’s “alternative” as opposed to its “primary” requirements.

The employer must conduct recruitment using its legal name at the time of the recruitment. However, an Application for Permanent Employment Certification (ETA Form 9089) must be filed in the name of the employer’s legal name at the time of submission. If a merger, acquisition, or any other corporate change in ownership occurs between the time of recruitment and the time of submission, resulting in a disparity between the employer’s name shown on the advertising used to recruit for a job opportunity and the employer’s name on the submitted ETA Form 9089, the employer must be prepared to provide documentation — in the event of an audit — proving that it is the successor in interest, a determination made based on the totality of the circumstances, including whether the current employer has assumed the assets and liabilities of the former entity with respect to the job opportunity.