US suspends PERM green-card sponsorship for several major tech firms
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The U.S. administration announced that companies including Microsoft, Adobe and several Indian IT firms will be barred from the Permanent Labour Certification program, a key step for foreign tech workers seeking U.S. green cards.
The United States government announced on Thursday that a group of large technology companies will be excluded from the Permanent Labour Certification (PERM) program, which allows employers to sponsor skilled foreign workers for permanent residency. Vice President JD Vance said the move targets firms that he claims have used the system to replace U.S. employees with lower-paid foreign workers.
"The programme has become rife with fraud," Vance told reporters at a White House news conference, adding that some workers are "mistreated by their employers" and used to undercut American wages.
Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling echoed the concerns, stating that the administration will "shut down the pipeline of systemic fraud" and that the fraud extends beyond hiring to the pathway toward citizenship.
The suspension applies to Microsoft, Adobe and several Indian-based IT services firms, including Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini. Sonderling said no new or pending PERM applications involving these companies will be processed while the suspension remains in effect. Companies such as Meta, Amazon and Google, which also rely heavily on H-1B visas, were not listed for exclusion.
Critics of the H-1B and PERM processes argue that some employers use the programs to lower labor costs and gain leverage over workers. Vance cited Microsoft’s 2023 layoff of 6,000 U.S. employees alongside the issuance of 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards, suggesting a replacement ratio of one American worker with 1.5 foreign hires. Sonderling noted that the suspended firms had received more than 230,000 H-1B visas and over 100,000 permanent labour certifications since 2009.
Microsoft responded that most of its recent H-1B filings were for existing employees extending or changing status, and that all applicants meet the visa category’s standards and receive comparable pay.
The policy change could affect thousands of foreign workers, many of whom are Indian nationals, who have been waiting for PERM certification amid a backlog that disproportionately impacts applicants from India. India’s Ministry of External Affairs called the suspension "unwarranted" and "deeply offensive," arguing that talent mobility benefits both economies and that the vice president’s remarks invoked historically painful colonial labor practices.