USCIS Issues Guidance on I-140 Petitions for Professional Athletes Under DOL FLAG System

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued policy guidance on December 18, 2025, updating Volume 6 of the USCIS Policy Manual to address how the Department of Labor's (DOL) Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG) system affects immigrant visa petitions filed on behalf of professional athletes. The guidance targets Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, which is the core petition form used in employment-based immigration categories including EB-3. The issue stems from DOL's mandatory transition to the FLAG system for permanent labor certification applications on June 1, 2023. The revised Form ETA-9089 used within FLAG no longer collects minimum job requirement information. Instead, that data was historically captured on Form ETA-9141, the Application for Prevailing Wage Determination — a form from which professional athletes are explicitly exempt under DOL regulations. Because professional athletes bypass the prevailing wage determination process, their FLAG-generated labor certification approvals now arrive at USCIS without the minimum job requirements for the offered position. USCIS adjudicators require this information to evaluate whether the beneficiary and job offer meet the standards of the requested classification, and without it, may issue a Request for Evidence (RFE). To avoid delays, petitioners — primarily major U.S. professional sports teams and their minor league affiliates — must now ensure that either the athlete's employment contract contains the minimum job requirements, or that the requirements are separately submitted alongside the I-140 filing. USCIS notes it receives fewer than 100 such labor certifications per year, making this a narrow but high-profile update. While this guidance directly targets professional athletes, EB-3 practitioners should note the broader implication: USCIS is actively monitoring gaps created by the FLAG system transition and issuing targeted policy updates to maintain adjudication integrity. Employers and attorneys in any EB-3 context should ensure all documentation fully satisfies minimum requirements, as USCIS continues to scrutinize completeness under the new DOL filing framework.