The Department of Labor said on Oct. 8 that it will stop accepting new permanent Labor certification (PERM)The Department of Labor process in which an employer shows that no qualified U.S. worker is available for a position, required for most EB-2 and EB-3 petitions.See it in the glossary (PERM) applications from eight companies, and will not process their pending ones. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling named Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini, according to CNBC’s report.
What officials said
The announcement came at a White House briefing. Sonderling said the department would not accept or process certification applications involving the companies. Reports say the administration cited alleged fraud and the effect of foreign-worker programs on American workers.
Officials said the eight employers together sought nearly 3 million foreign workers since 2009, with more than 230,000 Cap-subject and cap-exempt (H-1B)The H-1B category has an annual limit of 65,000 new visas or statuses per fiscal year, plus 20,000 more for people with a U.S. master's degree or higher. Petitions counted toward that limit are cap-subject. Petitions from higher education institutions, their related or affiliated nonprofits, and nonprofit or governmental research organizations are cap-exempt.See it in the glossary approvals and over 100,000 permanent labor certifications. Sonderling said Microsoft and Adobe were suspended because of multiple active federal investigations, while the six IT firms were singled out for their overall volume.
Microsoft rejected the suggestion that its hiring hurt American workers, and said it pays H-1B employees the same as others in comparable jobs.
Why PERM matters for green cards
PERM is the labor certification step that most employer-sponsored green card paths require before an immigrant petition is filed. Employers must test the U.S. labor market and the Labor Department must certify the position under federal labor certification rules. Our PERM glossary entry explains the basics, and the EB-3 timeline guide shows where it falls in the process.
What is not yet clear
No Labor Department notice or written order setting out the legal basis, scope or length of the suspension had been found as of Oct. 11. It is not known whether the suspension reaches workers whose applications are already pending, or how long it will last. No charges against the companies were announced.
The step follows a narrower move last month, when the department suspended new PERM filings for Cognizant and Cloudera. The administration is also pursuing a broader overhaul of the PERM process and an H-1B order on employer layoffs.