The eFile and eServe system can be used by the general public (Pro Se and Non-Attorneys), Attorneys, Attorney staff, DOL trusted users, and Court Reporter users.

To create an account, click on the “Create Account” button on the home page of the eFile and eServe website and follow the instructions given in the subsequent pages.

All general public users (Pro Se and Non-Attorneys) and public attorneys can use any valid email to create their account. All communications from the eFile and eServe system will be directed to this email.

No. Public attorneys have to use their Login.Gov id to access the eFile and eServe system

Every eFile and eServe user needs to register with a unique Login.Gov id.

Every user profile is linked to one unique email id. There is currently no option to add another email id in the user profile.

No, you cannot change the email id used to create the user account. The email id is tightly tied to your account. If you have a problem accessing your eamil account, you may create a fresh eFile and eServe account using another email id. If that does not work, contact the support team using the Contact form in the main menu with your queries and we will try to help you.

To sign in, public users should click on the “Sign in with Login.gov” and DOL trusted users should click on the “Sign in with DOL Account” button on the home page of eFile/eServe website.

The User Profile section contains your personal information. The profile information is used to pre-fill certain sections of the forms within the eFile and eServe system. The email address that is used in the profile is used in sending notifications. Some sections of the User Profile are mandatory.

You can edit your personal details in the “My Profile” page, once you are logged in.

To delete your account, please get in touch with the eFile and eServe support team using the "Contact" form within "Support" in the main menu.

Sharing accounts is not recommended as each account is linked to a specific user. Any case or appeal accessed or submitted will be approved based on the information provided in the user profile. If the information does not match with the submitted data, the submissions might not get approved.

An attorney at law (or attorney-at-law) in the United States is a practitioner in a court of law who is legally qualified to prosecute and defend actions in court on the retainer of clients. Alternative terms include counselor (or counselor-at-law) and lawyer.

If you are having trouble accessing your account, please get in touch with the eFile and eServe support team using the "Contact" form within "Support" in the main menu.

An organization is a grouping of users under a single umbrella that offers more efficient ways to handle cases and appeals. The easiest way to think of an organization is to think of your own company or firm. But an organization in the eFile and eServe system can also be a subgroup of a company, as a department, or a regional branch office. Organization are also used to manage shared mailboxes.

No, the names of organizations need to be unique. If you are creating a regional office of the same organization, then add the city or state name to differentiate between locations. e.g. "ABC Corp DC" vs "ABC Corp NY"

Organization members are users of the eFile and eServe system who are grouped as part of a company, firm or department by adding them to the organization as members..

An organization is created by an eFile and eServe user, who could also be one of the two administrators of the organization.

There are two ways by which members can be added to an organization:
1. Members can be added by the administrator of the organization.
2. Users can request to join an organization.

An organization has to have a minimum of one and a maximum of two administrators.

Once you register in the eFile and eServe system and save your user profile, you can navigate to the “My Organization” section under “My Account”. Once the page loads, you can search for your organization in the search box. If your organization is available, you can request to join the organization.

A user can create any number of organizations.

Yes. Only the name of each organization needs to be unique.

Not necessary. Pro-Se can do all requests and filings without the need for organizations

Pre-Approved members are users who have been added to the organization by the administrator but are not yet registered in the eFile and eServe system. Once the users register in the eFile and eServe system using the same email id as used in the Pre-Approved Members list, they will be automatically added to the organization as members.

Yes, but only the administrator can delete members from the organization by clicking on the “Remove” link next to the member.

Setting up an organization is not mandatory, but it is desirable as it lets you manage cases and appeals more efficiently.

Not necessarily. You can add members to your organization before they register in the eFile and eServe portal. These are called Pre-Approved members and are listed in the Pre-Approved Members table. Once they register in the eFile and eServe system, they will be automatically added as active members in your organization.

A Shared Mailbox is a common mailbox to which the eFile and eServe will send common notifications regarding cases and appeals servings. Shared mailboxes are mapped to agencies and case types. Only notifications related to the agency and the case type added in the shared mailbox will be sent to it.
Members who are added to the shared mailbox and those who have access to the cases or appeals that are notified, will get an email from the eFile and eServe system

A shared mailbox is created by the administrator of the organization.

Members can be added to shared mailboxes by the administrator of the organization.

Yes, but only the administrator can remove members from a shared mailbox by clicking on the “Remove” link next to the member in the Manage Mailbox page.

An administrator can create any number of shared mailboxes for an organization.

No. One email id can be used to setup one shared mailbox only.

You will need to be an administrator of the organization to set up the Shared Mailboxes. An organization must have a minimum of one and a maximum of 2 administrators. Any active member of the organization can be made an administrator.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Administrative Law Judges is the "trial court" for many of the Department's programs. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has eight District Offices. Judges hear cases involving a wide variety of labor-related actions, such as black lung benefits; longshore workers' compensation; immigration-related alien labor certifications and enforcement actions; whistleblower complaints involving corporate fraud and violations of transportation, environmental and food safety statutes; Fair Labor Standards Act enforcement actions; and OFCCP civil rights actions. The Office of Administrative Law Judges also houses the Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA).

A board of Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) within the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor (DOL) charged with reviewing and deciding immigration-related labor certification appeals. BALCA is responsible for issuing final administrative decisions on PERM applications, a type of labor certification and the first step of most employer-sponsored green card processes.

The OALJ & BALCA dashboard page has 3 sections – My Access Requests/Accessed Cases, Cases Delegated to Me, and New Cases. My Access Requests/Accessed Cases contains a list of cases that the user has requested/access to. Cases Delegated to Me contains a list of cases delegated to the user. New Cases are the list of cases that the user has filed to OALJ.The user can request/access to cases or can file new cases using the buttons on the page.

Each case or request can be in Approved, Pending, Rejected, Revoked or Returned states depending on the actions taken by the OALJ on the request to the case.

You can file a new case to OALJ by clicking on the “File a new Case” button on the OALJ & BALCA dashboard and filling up the form with all relevant details and by attaching supporting documents.

When a case is docketed before the Office of Administrative Law Judges, a case number is assigned. The number will appear on the documents you receive from OALJ. It looks something like this: 2019-BLA-12345 or 2020-INA-12345, etc. The first four numbers represent the Fiscal Year in which it docketed the case. The three letters inside the hyphens are an indicator of the case type. The final numbers represent the sequential number of the case in that fiscal year.

Yes, a non-attorney representative can represent an individual in a case. But the Notice of Appearance form (available for download in the OALJ & BALCA dashboard) will be different from that of an Attorney.

To get access to a case, you need to request access to the case by clicking on the “Request Access to Cases” button and submitting the form with all relevant documents uploaded.

In general, the Office of Administrative Law Judges requires the filing of a Notice of Appearance in order to be given approval to use the U.S. Department of Labor’s efile/eserve system (“EFS”). OALJ uses these Notices to verify the requester’s connection with the case.

However, where the presiding ALJ has consolidated separate proceedings before the OALJ, it may be necessary for parties or their representatives to e-file and receive e-service in proceedings in which they are not the attorney or non-attorney representative (“lay representative”), or self-represented litigant (“pro se” party). In such situations, the “REQUEST FOR EFS ACCESS – CONSOLIDATED CASE” form may be used to request EFS access for the consolidated cases in which the requester is not representing a party.

The requester should have already filed a Notice of Appearance for EFS access in the case or cases in which he or she is the representative or is self-represented. OALJ may check the Notice of Appearance filed in those case(s) when determining whether to grant access to consolidated proceeding(s) in which the requester is not representing a party.

Request access is done only once for a case. Once access is granted, you can do filings and view servings on the case.

Yes. The eFile and eServe system will function as the integrated gateway for filing and serving documents with DOL.

You can attach multiple documents in support of your request and each document can be a maximum of 200MB in size

pdf, jpg, jpeg, doc, xls, xlsx, txt, docx, rtf format documents can be attached during requesting access to a case.

In general, the Office of Administrative Law Judges requires the filing of a Notice of Appearance in order to be given approval to use the U.S. Department of Labor’s efile/eserve system (“EFS”). OALJ uses these Notices to verify the requester’s connection with the case.

However, where the presiding ALJ has consolidated separate proceedings before the OALJ, it may be necessary for parties or their representatives to e-file and receive e-service in proceedings in which they are not the attorney or non-attorney representative (“lay representative”), or self-represented litigant (“pro se” party). In such situations, the “REQUEST FOR EFS ACCESS – CONSOLIDATED CASE” form may be used to request EFS access for the consolidated cases in which the requester is not representing a party. The requester should have already filed a Notice of Appearance for EFS access in the case or cases in which he or she is the representative or is self-represented. OALJ may check the Notice of Appearance filed in those case(s) when determining whether to grant access to consolidated proceeding(s) in which the requester is not representing a party.

If you are a trusted user, you do not have to request access to a case. Instead, use the "Access Cases" button for direct access to a case. A trusted user will be added as an "Observer" when accessing the case. When the user is ready to become the attorney of record, click on the "Make Attorney of Record" button

It takes a few minutes before the website reflects the status change. Check back after a few minutes.

Once you click the save button of a form, the system needs to upload the documents to the agency. Virus scanning, uploading, and transferring files will take some time. Till the process is complete, the file links will say that it is still processing.

Once you are logged in (use the same email id used in the previous systems) and navigated to the corresponding agency, you will see different tables that displays all the cases you have requested access for/created/have been delegated.

Based on the status of the case, you will be able to click on the OALJ number(if approved); this will take you to the case details page.

If there are any eServings to the case this will appear in the “Documents served by OALJ” table, depending on the agency.

If a filing is rejected, a short comment will be provided by the agency. If you need more details, you can raise a support request via the Contact form under the Support tab in the main menu.

If a document is rejected, then it is not considered as filed. If you wish to file the same document or other technical documents, you can submit another filing.

Yes. When you first request access to EFS for the OALJ case, you must submit a new Notice of Appearance using the templates provided on the main dashboard, even if you previously filed a Notice of Appearance with the agency below. These Notices of Appearance will be used to assist OALJ in verifying that the person should be granted access to eFile, to be eServed with documents issued by the ALJ, and to receive eService of filings of other parties.

Typically, a request access to a case will be granted within 24 hours, if all the documents attached to the request are in order.

All Request Access to Cases are listed in the My Access Requests table and the New Cases submitted are listed in the New Cases table. Other cases such as delegated cases are listed in the Cases Delegated to Me table. By default, the tables lists the five most recent cases. If there are more cases, click on the View More button to see the full list. Within the view more page, you can search by Case Number or eFile Number and apply available filters.

The details of the current cases are available in the eFile and eServe database. But user will need to request access to their cases to get access.

Yes. When you first request access to EFS for the OALJ case, you must submit a new Notice of Appearance using the templates provided on the main dashboard, even if you previously filed a Notice of Appearance with the agency below. These Notices of Appearance will be used to assist OALJ in verifying that the person should be granted access to eFile, to be eServed with documents issued by the ALJ, and to receive eService of filings of other parties

That is correct. Only those with relevant documents that can indicate that access can be granted to the case or appeal will be given access.

You can see filings and servings only for cases you have access to. This is a security and privacy feature.

No. There is no limit, but access will be granted only based on the documents submitted.

There can be a slight delay in receiving emails. If you still do not receive emails, check the email address provided in the profile to make sure it is a valid email address and that you have access to this email. Furthermore, check the spam folder of the email, as some emails could end up there.

Clicking on the OALJ number link to the requested or accessed case takes the user to the case details page where the details of their filings, servings, parties in the case, and the delegated users are displayed.

The "Filings" section shows the filings that the user has done related to the case or filings from other parties on the case. The servings section shows the servings that have been posted to the user for the case. Parties to the Case section shows all the parties who have been added to the case. The Delegated Users section lists the users delegated to this case by attorneys on the case.

Yes, once the files are processed by the system, it will be available for download for all parties to the case from the case details page.

Yes, you can, if you are an attorney or a non-attorney representative in the case. To remove yourself from the case, you will need to submit a "Motion for Withdrawal" by clicking on the "Representative's Withdrawal of Appearance" button on the case details page. Once removed, future communications regarding the case will not be sent to you. Refer to the training manual to find out how to remove yourself from a case.

This button is shown for DOL trusted users. If you wish to withdraw from a case in which you are an Attorney of Record, you can use this option. To remove yourself from the case, you will first need to submit a "Motion for Withdrawal" by clicking on the “Remove Attorney of Record” button. Once removed, you will not receive any further communications regarding the case.

Yes, but you will need to submit a fresh request to access the case.

To submit a new filing to a case that you have access to, navigate to the case details page and click on “Submit a New Filing”, fill the form and upload necessary documents.

An attorney who has access to a case can delegate other members in the same organization to submit filings and view servings on the attorney's behalf. This is called delegation. Any submission that the delegated user does will be done in the attorney's user id.

To delegate access to a case, an attorney must first have access to the case. Once the access is gained, if the attorney is a member of an organization, the "Delegate Access" button will be visible on the case details page. Click on the button and select members from the organization to delegate access to. A case can be delegated to more than one attorney or non-attorney member of the organization.

Yes. Attorneys can delegate access to their cases and appeals to other members of their organization who do not already have access to the same case/appeal. Once delegated, both of them will have access to the case/appeal. All filings and other activities will be logged against the delegating attorney's name.

Yes. Every delegated user needs to be registered in the eFile and eServe system and also needs to be added as a member of the same organization as that of the attorney to be granted delegate access

The Appeals dashboard page has 4 sections – My Access Requests/Accessed Appeals, Appeals Delegated to Me, New Appeals, and Appeals in Draft State. My Access Requests/Accessed Appeals contains a list of appeals that the user has requested or has access to. Appeals Delegated to Me section contains the appeals delegated to the user. New Appeals section displays the appeals that the user has filed to ARB/BRB/ECAB. The Appeals in Draft State has the new appeals that the user has saved in draft before submitting to DOL. The user can request/access appeals to other cases or can file new appeals using the buttons on the page.

Each request can be in Approved, Pending, Rejected, Revoked or Returned states depending on the actions taken by ARB/BRB/ECAB on the request to the appeal.

Not automatically. You will need to submit a "Request Access to an Appeal" with the relevant details and documents attached. Once the request is approved, all the details will be available to you on the eFIle and eServe appeal details page.

No. The access request needs to be approved before being able to file a brief.

Not automatically. You will need to submit a "Request Access to an Appeal" with the relevant details and documents attached. Once the request is approved, all the appeal details will be available to you on the eFIle and eServe appeal details page.

To get access to an appeal, you need to request access to the appeal by clicking on the “Request Access to an Appeal” button and submitting the form with all relevant documents uploaded.

If you are a trusted user, you do not have to request access to an appeal. Instead, use the "Access Appeals" form for direct access to an appeal.

It takes a few minutes before the site reflects the status change. Check back after a few minutes.

You can file a new appeal by clicking on the “File a new Appeal” button on ARB/BRB/ECAB dashboard and filling up the form with all relevant details and attaching supporting documents.

Only PDF format documents can be attached during filing a new appeal.

Once you click the save button of a form, the system needs to upload the documents to the agency. Virus scanning, uploading, and transferring files will take some time. Till then, the page will show that it is still processing.

Once you are logged in (use the same email id used in the previous systems) and navigated to the corresponding agency, you will see different tables that displays all the cases you have requested access for/created/have been delegated.

Based on the status of the case, you will be able to click on the OALJ number(if approved); this will take you to the case details page.

If there are any eServings to the case this will appear in the “Documents served by OALJ” table, depending on the agency.

There can be a slight delay in receiving emails. If you still do not receive mails, check the email address provided in the profile to make sure it is a valid email address and that you have access to this email. Furthermore, check the spam folder of the email, as some emails could end up there.

Clicking on the Docket number link to the requested and approved appeal takes the user to the appeal details page that will show users details of their Appeal Status Details, Filings, Servings, Parties on the appeal, and Delegated Users.

The Filings section shows the filings that the user has done related to the Appeal. The Servings section shows the servings that have been posted to the user related to the case from Boards. Parties on the Appeal shows all the parties who are interested in the appeal. The Delegated users list all the users delegated by an attorney on this appeal.

1) You can submit a new filing with all relevant and additional documents. Mention any additional information in the comments box.
2) You can raise a support request regarding the rejected filing.

Yes, once the files are processed by the system, it will be available for download from the Appeals Details page.

If for some reason you wish to be removed from an Appeal that you have access to, you can use this option. Once removed, you will not receive any further communication regarding the appeal.

Yes, but you will need to submit a fresh request for access to the appeal.

To submit a new filing to an existing appeal, navigate to the appeal details page and click on “Submit a New Filing”, fill the form and submit.

If you are a delegated user on a case or appeal, as soon as the delegation is done by the attorney, you will receive an email informing you about it. As soon as the email is received, you can start filing to the delegated case/appeal.

Yes. You can file a new ECAB as an Appellant or Attorney/Lay Representative.

An attorney who has access to an appeal can delegate other members in the same organization to submit filings and view servings on the attorneys behalf. This is called delegation. Any submission that the delegated user does will be done in the attorney's user id.

To delegate access to an appeal, an attorney must have access to the appeal. Once access is gained, if the attorney is a member of an organization, the "Delegate Access" button will be visible on the appeal details page. Click on the button and select members from the organization to delegate access to. An appeal can be delegated to more than one member. An appeal can be delegated to an attorney or non-attorney member of the organization.

Yes, an attorney can delegate access to more than one member in the organization as long as the member does not already have access to the case/appeal.

An attorney cannot add a user as a delegate in the organization. Delegation is done per appeal. If the attorney wants to delegate an appeal, they have to do it for each appeal through the appeal details page.

Currently, this option is not available.

Currently, only text is supported in the contact form but the option to attach supported documents will be provided in the next release.

Fill out the "Contact" form within the "Support" section in the main menu and submit your query to the eFile and eServe support team.