Build the H-1B layoff file before DOL reviews your LCAs

Labor's Wage and Hour Division has 30 days from September 18, 2026 to start a review of past labor condition applications and decide whether INA 212(n)(2)(G) action is needed. President Donald J. Trump issued the H-1B executive order on September 18, 2026. The file it will test is the one your team already keeps. Start now.

The order requires the State, Labor, and Homeland Security departments to coordinate with Commerce, Education, and the Small Business Administration. The coordination changes the shape of the review, so a layoff question can move from one hiring decision to a pattern across filings, worksites, and sponsored hires.

HR leads and mobility managers should treat this as a document project. The file needs to be usable by counsel, auditable by HR, and clear enough that a reviewer can follow it without another explanation.

The lookback window is the filing deadline

The review is tied to the order, not the next filing season. Treat the window as a document deadline. If the file is not assembled now, it will be assembled under a request.

It should answer what was filed, what happened to workers, and what is planned. Each item below is a quick test, not a memo.

• Begin a review of earlier labor condition application data.
• Match each application to the job title, worksite, and wage level.
• Weigh whether an H-1B sponsor directly or indirectly laid off comparable U.S. workers in the previous year or plans future layoffs.
• Save the notice letters, reduction-in-force dates, and headcount reports.
• Map the affected filings to the worksite.
• Flag any gap where a layoff, filing, or worksite cannot be tied together.

If an item cannot be answered quickly, mark it as a gap and route it to counsel. A gap needs a source, a date, or a decision, not narrative.

Counsel should be able to use the file without reconstruction

Do not build a file that only the original author can read. A reviewer should find the filing, the worker group, and the decision point without extra explanation.

Use a single index for the lookback window. The index should point to the application, the layoff record, and the worksite note. If a document is missing, the index should say so.

Keep the language factual. Avoid words that argue the case. The record should show what happened, when it happened, and who was affected.

If counsel later needs to explain the file, the explanation should be short. If it is not, revise the index before adding more prose.

The layoff question reaches every filing surface

The order applies layoff weighing to labor condition applications, petitions, visas, and entries. A clean petition can still be affected by a weak layoff record. The record needs to show the relationship, not just the approval.

Comparable workers are the key. If a sponsored hire sits in the same occupation, location, or pay band as a worker who was let go, make that connection explicit.

Do not wait for a subpoena to define the scope. The scope is already defined. Build the file so it can be read in separate passes. A filing pass should show the filings. A workforce pass should show the changes that happened around them.

Keep the fee question out of the layoff file

A proclamation issued with the order keeps the $100,000 payment for certain H-1B cases in place until September 21, 2027. The extension excludes foreign students already in the United States and standard visa renewals.

Those fee rules belong in the budget file, not the layoff file. Mixing them can weaken the evidence that matters for the review.

Keep the layoff file narrow: filings, workers, worksites, and plans. The fee file can stay separate, dated, and tied to the cases that trigger it.

If a case touches both issues, label the documents separately. The layoff file should show employment impact. The fee file should show payment status.