iCERT will open for service at 2:00 p.m. Eastern on Monday, January 7, 2019

The iCERT Portal System is currently unavailable.

UPDATED ANNOUNCEMENT (January 4, 2019, 7:00PM EST):

Today, the U.S. Department of Labor held a conference call to update stakeholders on the status of the iCERT system. The Department is confident the iCERT System will open for service at 2:00 p.m. Eastern on Monday, January 7, 2019.

Due to an unprecedented volume of simultaneous system users that included applications for 97,800 workers on January 1, 2019, the legacy iCERT System experienced a failure preventing applications for H-2B temporary labor certifications from being submitted to the Department.

The Department’s iCERT Rapid Response team has been working non-stop to address all issues. Steps taken to recover and restore stability to the iCERT System include:

• Increasing web server capacity to 50 servers for managing the increased number of system users who need to submit applications;

• Instituting a “CAPTCHA” feature at the iCERT login stage to ensure individuals, as opposed to computer algorithms, are interacting with the system, and;

• Continuing to perform intensive testing and performance tuning on the iCERT system to simulate the functional load volume and activity of a large number of simultaneous system users.

The H-2B program is statutorily limited to 66,000 worker positions annually with 33,000 allocated to each half of the fiscal year. H-2B applications are date and time stamped to establish the order of submission, because of the demand for the program. A huge surge in user activity is expected upon the reopening of the iCERT System on January 7, especially in the first 15 minutes. The non-H-2B users should not attempt to log into the system until 3:00 p.m.

The Department’s iCERT Rapid Response Team will be monitoring the system’s servers continuously when services are restored.

Out of an abundance of caution, we have established and will be prepared to activate a backup solution should an unlikely new system disruption occur.

We understand how important our programs are for employers and realize this workforce is critical to meeting the seasonal needs of many employers across the nation. Thank you for your patience.

Source: h1b now