A public access file (PAF) is a file that needs to be maintained by any United States employer hiring people in H-1B, H-1B1, or E-3 temporary nonimmigrant worker statuses.
It includes the records associated with specific Labor Condition Application used for Form I-129 and/or visa application in acquiring the nonimmigrant worker. It contains the generic information like Summary of Benefits to Employees, LCA Posting Acknowledgment, Certified LCA etc. to job specific information like Statement of Actual Wage Determination, Prevailing Wage Source, O*Net Summary Report, Roles and Responsibilities and, Public Inspection File documents.
The file may be requested by any member of the public through telephone or email inquiries, to be responded within 3 business days. Regulations governing the public access file can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 20 (Employee Benefits), or more specifically, in 20 CFR 655. The PAF must be kept as long as the worker is employed in a status that depends on the corresponding LCA, and for one year after the worker is no longer in that status with the company.
Typically, PAFs are maintained as physical copies at the employer location. Maintaining proper PAFs is a key challenge for most of the organizations and some of these PAFs often go missed due to improper maintenance of these physical copies. Typically, DOL targets PAF audits. Potential penalty of a missing PAF during DOL audit can range up to $10,000. The ICE/DOL audits are expected to increase five times this year.
At this juncture, OnBlick provides digitalized PAF creation and maintenance based on the LCAs submitted for the last four years to FLC (Foreign Labor Certification). OnBlick's technology pulls the LCA (Labor Condition Application) numbers for the past four years for an organization from FLC database. Given Certified LCA matching the LCA number, OnBlick generates the relevant PAF documents. These documents can be shared to external auditors as required; triggers an email with the link and the OTP to view the Public Access Files.
If you are an existing OnBlick customer, start leveraging the auto generate PAF capability now. If you are interested in viewing the demo, Book a Demo now at OnBlick site.
