What is an LCA? Labor Condition Application requirements, wages, and posting rules

An LCA, or Labor Condition Application, is the form an employer files with the Department of Labor before it can petition USCIS for an H-1B worker. It's Form ETA-9035E, it takes DOL seven working days to review, and most people treat it as a box to tick on the way to the real filing. That's where the trouble starts, because the LCA is where your company makes four legally binding promises about how it will pay and treat that employee for the next three years.

Almost every H-1B enforcement action traces back to those promises rather than to anything in the petition itself. The Wage and Hour Division doesn't audit whether your specialty occupation argument was persuasive. It audits whether you paid the required wage, whether you posted the notice, and whether the file you were supposed to build exists.

Here's what an LCA commits your company to, what has to sit in a folder afterward, and the specific gaps that turn a routine filing into a back-wage liability.

What is an LCA and where does it sit in the H-1B process?

The LCA is a Department of Labor filing. The H-1B petition is a USCIS filing. They are two separate submissions to two separate agencies, and the order is fixed: the LCA is certified first, then Form I-129 goes to USCIS with the certified LCA attached.

Employers conflate the two constantly, usually because the immigration attorney handles both and HR only sees one invoice. The distinction matters the moment something goes wrong. A denied I-129 is an immigration problem. A defective LCA is a labor problem, and it can surface years later, long after the employee has started, when someone files a complaint or a competitor requests your file.

Three visa categories require an LCA before the petition can be filed:

• H-1B, the specialty occupation visa, with a certified LCA valid for a period of employment up to three years
• H-1B1, for nationals of Chile and Singapore
• E-3, for Australian nationals, where the LCA covers a period of employment up to two years

DOL reviews an LCA within seven working days, and the review is narrow. According to the DOL Office of Foreign Labor Certification, LCAs are reviewed "for completeness and obvious errors or inaccuracies." Nobody at DOL verifies that your wage figure is right, that you posted the notice, or that the job is real. Certification is not approval of your compliance. It's confirmation that the form was filled out without visible defects, and the burden of everything you attested to stays with you.

That gap between what DOL checks and what DOL enforces is the entire compliance story. Processing times and form editions change, so confirm current requirements on the DOL FLAG system before you file. Figures in this post are current as of August 2026.

The four LCA attestations: what your company is signing

Every certified LCA carries four attestations. Your authorized representative signs them, and they bind the company for the full validity period of the LCA.

1. You will pay the required wage

The employer attests to paying the H-1B worker at least the required wage, which is the higher of the prevailing wage for the occupation in that area or the actual wage paid to similarly employed workers at the company. More on the mechanics of that comparison below, because it's where most money is lost.

2. Employment will not adversely affect working conditions

Hiring an H-1B worker cannot degrade the working conditions of U.S. workers in similar roles, covering hours, shifts, vacation, and benefits. In practice this attestation surfaces when an H-1B worker is offered a materially worse benefits package than the U.S. employees sitting next to them, which is both a compliance failure and a retention problem.

3. There is no strike or lockout in the occupational classification

If a strike or lockout occurs at the place of employment in the same occupation, the employer must notify DOL, and the LCA cannot be used to place a worker into that dispute.

4. Notice has been given to workers

The employer attests that it notified workers in the same occupational classification that an LCA was filed. This is the attestation companies most often break by accident, and it has the shortest fuse.

Each attestation is enforceable on its own. You can have a flawless petition, an approved H-1B, and a happy employee, and still owe back wages because attestation one was quietly violated during a two-month gap in project work.

Everything about the H-1B visa in one placeCap season, wage levels, filing steps, and the path from petition to start date.

Read the H-1B visa guide

The LCA wage obligation: prevailing wage vs actual wage

The required wage is the higher of two numbers, and employers routinely calculate only one of them.

The prevailing wage is what similarly employed workers earn in the area of intended employment, determined by occupation and wage level. The actual wage is what your own company pays its other employees with similar experience and qualifications in the same role at the same location. You owe whichever is greater.

Companies get burned on the actual wage side. A startup hires an H-1B software engineer at a Level II prevailing wage of, say, $118,000, files cleanly, and never checks that its three U.S. engineers with the same title and experience are all earning $145,000. The prevailing wage was met. The actual wage was not, and the difference is owed as back wages for every pay period.

For how the four prevailing wage levels are set and what pushes a role from Level I to Level III, see our breakdown of H-1B prevailing wage levels, and for the floor this creates on compensation, H-1B minimum salary.

Two wage rules catch employers off guard:

1. Benching is not allowed. If an H-1B employee is in nonproductive status because of a decision by the employer, no assignment, no project, a lack of a permit or license, you still owe the required wage. Unpaid bench time is one of the most common findings in Wage and Hour Division investigations, and it accrues quickly across a group of consultants.
2. The obligation starts before the work does. The required wage is owed from the point the employee enters into employment, which for a worker already in the U.S. is generally within 30 days of admission or the approval date, not the date a client project finally kicks off.

You also have to document the actual wage system itself: a clear written explanation of how you set pay for that role, including how periodic increases work. That document belongs in the public access file, and "we benchmark against the market" is not an explanation.

LCA notice of filing: where it goes and how long it stays up

The fourth attestation has hard timing rules, and they don't bend for a busy quarter.

Under 20 CFR 655.734, the notice must be given on or within 30 days before the date the LCA is filed. Hard-copy notices are posted in two conspicuous locations at each place of employment and remain posted for a total of 10 days.

The electronic option exists and most companies now use it. You can send direct email to the affected employees in that occupational classification at that worksite, or post the notice on an intranet accessible to them for 10 days. Direct individual email only has to go out once. An intranet posting has to stay up for the full 10 days.

Where this breaks:

• Remote and distributed teams. The notice belongs at each place of employment. If your H-1B employee works from a home office in another state, that address is a worksite, and a notice pinned to a breakroom wall in your headquarters city does nothing for it.
• Client sites. Consulting arrangements place workers at third-party locations, and the notice obligation follows the worksite.
• Documentation of the posting. Almost nobody keeps proof. Screenshot the intranet page with a visible date, save the sent email with its timestamp, or photograph the posted notice. Without evidence, an attestation you fulfilled looks identical to one you skipped.

If a union represents workers in the occupational classification, notice goes to the bargaining representative instead of being posted.

The LCA public access file: what goes in it and who can ask

The public access file, or PAF, is the compliance artifact that survives the case. Under 20 CFR 655.760, the materials must be available within one working day of filing the LCA. Not one week. Not by the time the petition is approved.

The file has to be kept either at the employer's principal place of business or at the place of employment, and it has to be available for public examination. Any member of the public can ask to see it: a DOL investigator, a competing employer, a union, a laid-off worker, a journalist, or the H-1B employee themselves.

At minimum, assemble these items:

1. A copy of the certified LCA, Form ETA-9035 or 9035E, signed by the employer's authorized representative
2. Documentation of the wage rate actually paid to the H-1B worker
3. A full, clear explanation of the actual wage system, including how the company sets pay for the role and applies periodic increases
4. Documentation of how the prevailing wage was determined, including the source and the date it was obtained
5. Proof that the notice of filing was given, with the posting dates or the email record
6. A summary of the benefits offered to all workers in the occupational classification, and an explanation of any differentiation
7. Where a corporate change happened, the successor entity's sworn statement accepting the LCA obligations

Records must be removed one year after the end of the period of employment shown on the LCA, or one year from the date the LCA is withdrawn. Payroll records supporting the wage obligation are retained separately and for longer, so don't treat the PAF removal date as a signal to shred everything.

One practical note that saves a lot of pain: build the file at filing, not when someone asks for it. A file assembled in a hurry after a request arrives will be missing the actual wage memo, and that's the item DOL cares most about.

When a worksite change triggers a new LCA

An LCA covers a specific occupation in a specific area of intended employment. Move the worker outside that area and the LCA no longer covers the placement.

The general shape of the rule:

• Movement within the same area of intended employment typically requires posting the notice at the new location, not a new LCA
• Movement to a new area of intended employment requires a new certified LCA, and where the change is material, an amended Form I-129 filed with USCIS before the employee starts working there
• Short-term placements may be covered by a limited exception with its own day limits and conditions, which is fact-specific enough that it deserves a real conversation with counsel rather than a policy assumption

The cost of getting this wrong is not theoretical. Working at an uncovered worksite is a status problem for the employee and an attestation problem for the employer at the same time. Companies with mobile workforces should treat any address change the same way they treat a title change: as an event that triggers a review, not an HRIS field update. Our guide to building a company immigration policy covers how to wire that trigger into onboarding and transfer workflows.

For the mechanics of moving an employee between employers rather than between sites, see how the H-1B transfer process works.

Common LCA violations and what they cost

Five failure patterns account for most of what the Wage and Hour Division finds. Each one has a specific consequence attached.

1. Unpaid bench time. An employee between projects is still owed the required wage. Back wages accrue per pay period and can reach six figures across a consulting bench before anyone notices.
2. Actual wage drift. The company raises its U.S. employees at the annual cycle and the H-1B worker's pay stays flat. The required wage rose with the actual wage, and the shortfall is owed retroactively.
3. Missing or undocumented postings. The notice went up but nobody saved proof, or it never went up at a remote worksite. This is an attestation violation on its face.
4. No public access file, or an incomplete one. The one-working-day window is unforgiving, and the actual wage explanation is the piece most often missing.
5. Unreported worksite changes. A quiet relocation with no new LCA and no amended petition puts both the employer and the employee at risk.

Penalties depend on the type and willfulness of the violation and can include back wages, civil money penalties, and debarment from the H-1B program. Current penalty amounts and enforcement guidance are published by the DOL Wage and Hour Division, and they're adjusted periodically, so check the live figures rather than a number from a training deck.

An LCA compliance checklist HR can run this week

You can audit your own exposure without an attorney. Pull your active LCAs and answer these:

1. For every active H-1B employee, does a certified LCA exist covering the address where they physically work today?
2. Does a public access file exist for each LCA, and does it contain the actual wage explanation, not just the certified form?
3. Can you produce dated proof of the notice of filing for each one, an email timestamp, a screenshot, or a photo?
4. Is each H-1B employee currently paid at or above both the prevailing wage on the LCA and the actual wage paid to comparable U.S. employees, after the most recent merit cycle?
5. Has anyone changed worksites, gone remote, or moved to a client site since the LCA was certified?
6. Are any H-1B employees in nonproductive status right now, and are they being paid?
7. Do you know the removal date for each public access file, one year after the end of the LCA employment period?

Any "no" or "not sure" is worth resolving before it's answered under a Notice of Inspection. The same reasoning applies to Form I-9, where the timing is different but the evidence problem is identical, covered in our guide to I-9 compliance and audit readiness.

Where the LCA sits in your broader sponsorship program

The LCA is one obligation inside a sponsorship program that also includes petition strategy, Form I-9 and E-Verify records, worksite tracking, and expiration management. Most companies handle each of those in a different place, which is why an audit request turns into a week of reconstruction. Our overview of how to sponsor a foreign worker walks the full employer sequence, and what visa sponsorship involves covers the commitment at a higher level.

Tukki is a U.S. immigration provider that works with employers sponsoring skilled professionals, from H-1B specialty occupation petitions to employer-sponsored green cards through PERM labor certification. HR teams get a single view of every case, every filing, and every date across their sponsored population, so LCA postings and public access files are something you can pull up rather than reassemble.

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