The eight suspended companies
Microsoft and Adobe were named separately from the six IT outsourcing firms, and on a different stated basis. Every source we checked agrees on all eight names.
| Company | What was announced | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft | Named separately, on the stated basis of multiple active federal investigations. | CNBC |
| Adobe | Named separately, on the stated basis of multiple active federal investigations. | CNBC |
| Cognizant | Named as one of six large IT outsourcing firms suspended from the program. | TechCrunch |
| Infosys | Named as one of six large IT outsourcing firms suspended from the program. | TechCrunch |
| Tata | Named as one of six large IT outsourcing firms suspended from the program. | TechCrunch |
| Wipro | Named as one of six large IT outsourcing firms suspended from the program. | TechCrunch |
| HCL | Named as one of six large IT outsourcing firms suspended from the program. | TechCrunch |
| Capgemini | Named as one of six large IT outsourcing firms suspended from the program. | TechCrunch |
A gap worth knowing about.These are the names as spoken at a press conference, not legal entity names. PERM applications are filed by specific US employer entities, and no source says which ones are covered — whether “Tata” means the parent, a US subsidiary, or both is simply not established, and the same question applies to every other name here. If you are employed by a subsidiary, this list alone cannot tell you whether your employer is in scope. Ask your employer, and wait for the written notice.
Confirmed, reported, and not yet known
This is the most important section on the page. Most coverage of this story blends three different kinds of claim into one voice. Here they are kept apart.
- Confirmed
- A primary source establishes this — a regulation, a statute, a company's own statement, or the recording of officials speaking.
- Reported
- A named news outlet or law firm says this and no primary source does. Consistent reporting is not the same as a published document.
- Not yet known
- Nobody credible has established this. We will not guess, and an item stays here until a source exists.
Was an announcement made, and by whom?
Yes. At a press conference of the White House task force on fraud on October 8, 2026, Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling announced that eight companies were suspended from the Permanent Labor Certification programme, appearing alongside Vice President JD Vance. Video of the remarks is public, which establishes the words officials used. What a recording cannot establish is anything they did not say — and they did not name a legal authority, identify the legal entities covered, or address cases already filed.
Which companies were named?
Microsoft and Adobe, plus six IT outsourcing firms: Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini. The Secretary named all eight aloud and the recording bears that out, with Microsoft and Adobe described separately as suspended on the basis of active federal investigations. What is not established is which legal entities those names refer to — PERM applications are filed by specific US employing entities, and nobody has published them.
Were H-1B visas suspended?
No. The announcement was confined to PERM, which is the Labor Department stage of the green card process, and officials drew that distinction themselves. No H-1B worker at these companies lost work authorisation because of this, and nothing in it changes anyone's existing H-1B status or its expiry date. India's foreign ministry made the same point independently on October 9, stating that PERM is distinct from the H-1B programme and that the suspension does not by itself affect the validity of H-1B visas.
Are pending PERM applications frozen, or only new filings?
Both, according to every source that quotes the Secretary directly: the Department will not accept new applications from these employers and will not continue processing the ones already pending. No source says pending applications are unaffected, though the Indian IT industry body described it as a suspension from filing new applications, which is narrower. What is genuinely unresolved is the separate question of certifications already granted.
Has the Labor Department published anything in writing?
Not on any public page we checked, and the list is specific: as of October 11, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. ET — three days after the announcement — no notice of this action appeared in the ETA news releases (where the May 2026 Cloudera suspension was published), in the Office of the Secretary news releases, on the OFLC announcements page, on the ETA foreign labor certification announcements page, on the OFLC debarment list, or in the Federal Register. That is a statement about public pages at a moment in time, not a claim that nothing exists anywhere — and it says nothing about private notices, which are a separate matter below. Three days of silence is itself worth noting: the Department published a named press release for a comparable action against a single employer in May.
Were the employers themselves notified in writing?
Not publicly reported either way, and you should not assume they were not. The regulation that permits an action like this requires the Department to give written notification to the employer unless the investigating agency asks it not to — so per-employer notices may well exist with nothing posted publicly. Immigration counsel are treating those notices as the operative documents and advising that the authority and the duration be confirmed from them. If you work for one of these companies, your employer may hold a document that answers questions this page cannot.
What legal authority was cited?
None, by anyone official. Immigration practitioners identified 20 CFR 656.31(b) as the provision that permits an action like this, and the Department used that power in writing against another employer five months earlier — but the citation is theirs, not the Department's. Treat 656.31(b) as the rule that would allow this, not as the rule the Department has said it used.
How long does the suspension last?
Officials did address this, but not with a date. Asked directly how long it would last, the Vice President said it would last as long as it needs to, and that the administration has a number of tools to suspend it indefinitely — with Microsoft reportedly remaining barred until it demonstrates it is prioritising American hiring. What nobody official has given is an end date or a stated review period. The regulation that would permit this caps an initial suspension at 180 days and requires an affirmative decision at that point either to resume processing or to extend, with extensions uncapped — and the Department applied exactly that 180-day figure to another employer in May 2026. But no official has applied it to these eight, so do not read it as their timetable.
Are PERM certifications that were already approved affected?
Not addressed by anyone official. Immigration counsel read the announcement's silence as meaning already-certified applications are not automatically revoked, and that is a reasonable reading — but it is an inference from silence, not confirmation. What the regulations do establish is that undoing an approved certification is a separate process: the Department must issue a Notice of Intent to Revoke setting out detailed grounds, the employer has 30 days to respond, and the decision is appealable. A certification can also be invalidated by USCIS or a consular officer on a finding of fraud or wilful misrepresentation. None of that has been reported as happening.
Are pending or approved I-140 petitions affected?
No agency has said. Counsel infer from the silence that there is no blanket revocation of approved petitions merely because an employer appears on the list — again an inference, not guidance. The I-140 is filed with USCIS, part of the Department of Homeland Security, a different agency from the one that made this announcement. The connection that does exist runs through the certification: an approved employment-based petition is automatically revoked if the labor certification supporting it is invalidated under the PERM regulations, and that is also one of the four grounds on which a priority date is forfeited. That is the exposure to watch, and it depends on a revocation or invalidation nobody has reported.
Are pending I-485 applications affected?
No agency has said, and counsel report no announced policy of denying pending adjustment applications because of the sponsoring employer. Separately and independently of this announcement, an I-140 stays valid for a new job where the I-485 has been pending 180 days or more, the petition is approved and unrevoked, and the new job is in the same or a similar occupational classification — shown on Form I-485 Supplement J. That protection comes from the statute and the portability regulation and is not altered by anything announced here.
Does the suspension end H-1B extensions beyond the sixth year?
Not by itself, on the public record as it stands — and this is the most widely misread part of the story. The regulation lets a worker keep extending past six years in one-year increments while a PERM filed 365 or more days ago is alive. A suspension of processing is not among the events that end that: those are the approved certification expiring, a final decision to deny or revoke or invalidate the certification, a final decision to deny or revoke the I-140, a decision to deny or approve the adjustment application or immigrant visa, and administrative closure of any of them. The regulation adds that a denial or revocation is not final while an appeal period is open or an appeal is pending. So a frozen application is still a pending application here. What a suspension does not postpone is the separate expiry of an already-approved certification, which lapses on its own schedule.
What did Microsoft say?
Microsoft published a response the same day and added to it through the afternoon. It said it believes in the strength and talent of the American workforce and that the vast majority of its US employees are Americans; that of roughly 6,000 H-1B applications it submitted in the last fiscal year, 80 per cent were to extend or change the status of people already working at Microsoft rather than to hire anyone new; and that the remaining new-hire filings were for people already lawfully in the United States and equal about 1 per cent of its US workforce. It also said it files H-1B petitions only for those who meet the standards of the category, and pays its H-1B employees the same as others doing comparable work.
What did Adobe say?
Nothing we can find. Reporters across several outlets recorded that Adobe did not respond to requests for comment, and one noted that it contacted all eight companies and only Microsoft replied. No statement has appeared since.
Have the other companies responded?
Two of the six have, both on October 9 and both playing the impact down. Infosys filed with the Indian stock exchanges saying it does not anticipate a material impact, pointing to its US workforce and hubs, and saying it welcomes the opportunity to work with the Department of Labor on any queries. Tata Consultancy Services said it would comply with any directive and that its PERM applications had been in single digits over the last two years. Nasscom, the Indian IT industry body — a trade association, not one of the eight — said immigration and skilled talent mobility are distinct issues and that the number of employees moving from H-1B to permanent residency through PERM is relatively limited. Wipro, HCL, Cognizant and Capgemini have not issued statements. Indian IT shares rose on the first trading session after the announcement, which is a market judgement about exposure rather than a fact about anyone's case.
What figures were given for Microsoft?
The Vice President cited roughly 6,000 American workers laid off in the previous year, about 6,300 H-1B visas, and nearly 3,000 green cards, and characterised Microsoft as having replaced each laid-off worker with more than one foreign worker. The underlying investigation data has not been published, so the assertions cannot be checked directly. Two things complicate them. Microsoft's own figures are not directly comparable — it counts applications rather than visas, and says 80 per cent were for existing employees, and applications and visas are different units. And a published analysis of the H-1B data on October 10 reported that around two in three of Microsoft's approvals went to people already working there, and that the two largest H-1B sponsors were not suspended at all.
Have these companies been debarred from the programme?
No. Debarment is a separate and much heavier action than a suspension of processing: it requires a written Notice of Debarment setting out detailed grounds, states a term of no more than three years, and carries appeal rights. The Labor Department publishes the list of debarred employers, attorneys and agents, and as of October 11 that list was last regenerated on October 7 — the day before the announcement — and carries two entries, neither of which is any of the eight companies. None of the eight is debarred, and nothing announced on October 8 debarred anyone.
Why does my H-1B extension seem slower since this?
No policy change has been announced that would explain it, and the official position remains that H-1B is untouched. One immigration firm has reported noticing that H-1B extensions at certain companies are not being approved as routinely as before, and similar friction on change-of-employer petitions — while cautioning explicitly that this should not be confused with any announced blanket restriction. Treat that as one firm's observation of its own caseload, not an established pattern and not a rule. If your own case is moving slowly, that is a question for the attorney handling it.
Has anyone filed a lawsuit?
None found. A search of the federal court records system turned up no complaint, temporary restraining order or injunction naming any of the eight companies or the Department in connection with this, and no outlet reports one. That system does not capture every docket immediately, so this is an absence of findings rather than proof nothing was filed — and the announcement is hours old, so an absence now tells you nothing about what may follow.
Will other companies be suspended?
No official has named another company as suspended from PERM. Officials did describe investigations reaching beyond these eight employers, including into alleged visa fraud at a number of universities, and the Vice President chairs a task force on fraud established by executive order in March 2026. An investigation is not a suspension, and we will not list a company here until one is actually named.
Exactly which pages we checked
“No notice has been published” is not a claim anyone can verify, so this page does not make it. What it gives instead is a list: the public agency pages read at October 11, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. ET, and the most recent item each one carried. If a notice appears on any of them, the status table above changes.
Most recent item: October 8, 2026 — an unrelated unemployment insurance claims report
The surface that counts: the May 2026 Cloudera suspension was published here as a named press release, with the Employment and Training Administration shown as the issuing office. Note the listing is paginated and only reaches back a few months, so check the release URLs directly rather than trusting the first page.
Most recent item: October 9, 2026 — a release announcing that Keith Sonderling was sworn in as Secretary of Labor
Most recent item: September 2, 2026 — an H-2A wage methodology notice
An absence here means less than it appears: this page did not carry the May 2026 Cloudera suspension either.
Most recent item: September 17, 2026 — a records management page notice
Most recent item: Regenerated October 7, 2026 — the day before the announcement — and unchanged since. It carries two entries, neither of them any of the eight companies.
Worth checking precisely because it keeps the two things apart: debarment is a separate, heavier action with a written notice, a stated term of up to three years and appeal rights. None of the eight is debarred.
Most recent item: No document from the Employment and Training Administration published on or after October 8, 2026
And one thing this list does not tell you. The regulation that would permit this action requires the Labor Department to give written notice to the employer, unless the investigating agency asks it not to. So per-employer notices may well exist with nothing posted publicly, and immigration counsel are treating them as the operative documents. If you work for one of the eight, your employer may hold a document that answers questions this page cannot — which makes it worth asking.
What this means at your stage
The suspension lands very differently depending on how far your case had got. Find your stage; the others will not apply to you.
- 1
Green card process not started
What was announced is that the Department will not accept new PERM applications from these employers, so the filing that would start your case cannot be made while that holds. Be precise about the limits of that, though: nothing announced stops your employer doing the preparatory work — a prevailing wage request, recruitment, assembling the case — and nothing announced touches the green card routes that do not use PERM at all. No source supports a wider reading. You have lost no existing benefit, because there was nothing filed to lose. The clock that keeps running is your H-1B six-year date.
Next step: Find your six-year date first, because it is the deadline any new process has to beat. Work it out with the six-year limit calculator, then read the self-petition routes below.
- 2
Prevailing wage or recruitment stage, before PERM is filed
The work already done is preparation for a filing that, on the announcement as reported, cannot currently be made. Nothing announced prohibits the preparatory steps themselves — but a prevailing wage determination and a completed recruitment round each have their own validity period, so a long suspension can waste work that was otherwise sound. No 365-day clock has started for you, because that clock runs from the PERM filing and nothing has been filed.
Next step: Ask your employer, in writing, what it intends to do with the recruitment already completed and whether the wage determination will expire. Then check your six-year date against the time a fresh process would need.
- 3
PERM filed and pending
Your application stops moving. Every source quoting the Labor Secretary directly says pending applications will not be processed, not only that new ones will not be accepted. The important thing this is not: a suspension of processing is not a denial and not a revocation, so your application is still a pending application.
Next step: That distinction is worth more than it sounds. Because your filing is still pending, it still counts toward the 365-day test for one-year H-1B extensions past six years. The regulation ends that eligibility on a defined set of events — the certification expiring, a final denial, revocation or invalidation, a decision on the adjustment application, or administrative closure — and a suspension of processing is none of them. Check whether your filing reaches 365 days in time.
- 4
PERM approved, I-140 not yet filed
This is the stage with a live deadline attached, and it is the one to act on today. An approved certification expires if it is not filed in support of an I-140 within 180 calendar days of the date the Labor Department granted it. That clock is in the regulation and it keeps running whatever the Department has announced. Whether the announcement reaches already-approved certifications has not been addressed by anyone official.
Next step: Find the grant date on the certification and count 180 days from it — not from the day you were told. Then ask your employer directly whether it will file the I-140 inside that window, because the filing goes to USCIS, which is a different agency from the one that announced this.
- 5
I-140 pending
No agency has said anything about pending I-140 petitions. The petition sits with USCIS, part of the Department of Homeland Security, and the Labor Department does not adjudicate it. The connection that exists runs backwards through the certification: if the certification supporting your petition were invalidated, that would reach the petition. No such invalidation has been reported.
Next step: Keep your own copy of the receipt notice and its receipt number. A pending filing that is already 365 days old is also what supports a one-year H-1B extension, so the filing date is worth knowing precisely.
- 6
I-140 approved
The strongest position of any stage here, and no agency has said it is affected. Priority-date retention attaches on approval and has no waiting period — it is forfeited only where the petition is revoked on one of four specific grounds, which include invalidation or Labor Department revocation of the certification behind it. That is the exposure here, and it is indirect: it needs a revocation or invalidation nobody has reported. Extensions of up to three years at a time are available, but only while no visa number is available for your category and country of birth — if your priority date is current, that route closes and the adjustment application is the step instead.
Next step: What an approved I-140 does and does not preserve is a subject in its own right — the approved I-140 guide covers portability, priority dates and withdrawal in full. Hold your own copy of the approval notice.
- 7
I-485 pending
No agency has addressed pending adjustment applications. Separately and independently of this announcement, an I-140 can stay valid for a new job — but the 180 days of pending I-485 is one condition among several, not the whole test. You also need a qualifying petition that is approved, or that was pending when you notified USCIS of the new offer and is subsequently approved; its approval must not have been revoked; and the new job must be in the same or a similar occupational classification, meaning one that resembles the sponsored occupation in every relevant respect or shares its essential qualities. The mechanism for showing it is Form I-485 Supplement J.
Next step: If you are weighing a move, the 180-day mark is only the first of the conditions above — the occupational-classification test is where these cases are actually won or lost. Confirm how your own role compares, and get the Supplement J position straight, before you resign anything.
Your options
Two of the routes below need no employer at all, which is what makes them relevant here: a suspension aimed at employers cannot block a petition you file for yourself. Eligibility for every one of them is fact-specific, and none of this is a view on whether you qualify.
Start again with a different employer
Needs an employerA new employer files a new PERM from the beginning, including a fresh prevailing wage determination and a fresh recruitment round. It is the most common route and the slowest, which is why your six-year date is the figure to weigh before you resign anything. An approved I-140 from the old employer generally carries its priority date with you.
EB-1A, extraordinary ability
You file it yourselfYou petition for yourself. No employer files it and no PERM is involved, which is precisely why it is unaffected by a suspension aimed at employers. The evidentiary standard is high and genuinely narrow — it asks for sustained national or international acclaim, evidenced against a defined list of criteria. Worth a professional assessment rather than a self-assessment.
EB-2 National Interest Waiver
You file it yourselfAlso self-petitioned and also PERM-free. The waiver asks you to show that your proposed work has substantial merit and national importance, that you are well positioned to advance it, and that it would on balance benefit the United States to waive the labour market test. Broader than EB-1A, and still an assessment worth paying for.
EB-1B, outstanding researchers, and EB-1C, multinational managers
Needs an employerEmployer-filed but PERM-free: neither category requires a labour certification. EB-1B needs international recognition in an academic field and a qualifying research position. EB-1C needs a qualifying managerial or executive role within a multinational organisation. Both still need an employer willing to file, so a suspension that stops an employer filing PERM does not by itself stop these.
And what an approved I-140 preserves. If you already have one, it generally carries its priority date to a new employer and supports H-1B time beyond the usual six years — which can change the arithmetic on every option above. That is a subject in its own right and the approved I-140 guide covers it properly, including what happens if the petition is withdrawn.
If you are a laid-off US worker
There is a rule most people have never heard of that may apply directly to you. If an employer laid workers off in the same or a related occupation, in the same area, within six months before filing a PERM application, it has to document that it notified and considered those laid-off US workers for the job it is sponsoring. That obligation sits in 20 CFR 656.17(k), and it is the provision at the centre of the allegations behind this announcement.
Read what the PERM layoff rule actually requires — what counts as a layoff, what “related occupation” means, what notice you should have received, and where to report it if you did not.
Timeline of events
Newest last. The May 2026 entry is the one worth pausing on: the Labor Department has done this before, to one employer, and published a written release naming the action and its duration.
- July 23, 2025Reported
The Vice President criticises technology layoffs alongside H-1B filings
Speaking at a Washington summit on artificial intelligence, JD Vance attacked companies that lay off American workers and then say they cannot find workers in America, singling out the technology sector. Microsoft had announced roughly 9,000 layoffs earlier that month. Microsoft responded that the layoffs had no connection to its visa programme and that most of its filings that year were extensions for existing employees. This is background: no government action followed at the time.
Newsweek (July 2025) - March 16, 2026Confirmed
The Task Force to Eliminate Fraud is established
An executive order created a White House task force on fraud, chaired by the Vice President. The October announcement was made at one of its press conferences.
The White House - May 12, 2026Confirmed
The Labor Department suspends one employer from PERM — in writing
Acting on an allegation that the employer had run a recruitment process designed to keep qualified American workers from applying, the Office of Foreign Labor Certification suspended processing of all PERM applications filed by or on behalf of Cloudera for 180 days, coordinating with the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. This matters as a benchmark twice over: the Department published a named press release giving the employer, the action and the duration — and it published it in the ETA newsroom, not on the OFLC announcements page, which is why that page is a poor place to look for an absence.
U.S. Department of Labor (press release, May 12, 2026) - October 8, 2026Confirmed
Eight companies announced as suspended from PERM
At a press conference of the White House fraud task force, the Labor Secretary named Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini, saying the Department would not accept new or process pending permanent labor certification applications involving them. H-1B visas were not suspended. No regulation was cited and no end date was given, though the suspensions were described as indefinite. As of this update no public notice has appeared on any agency page we checked.
PBS NewsHour (October 8, 2026) - October 9, 2026Reported
Two of the companies respond, and India objects
Infosys filed with the Indian stock exchanges saying it does not anticipate a material impact and welcomes the opportunity to work with the Department of Labor; Tata Consultancy Services said it would comply with any directive and that its PERM filings had been in single digits over two years. India's foreign ministry objected to the characterisation of workers used at the press conference, and separately confirmed that PERM is distinct from the H-1B programme and that the suspension does not by itself affect H-1B validity. Indian IT shares rose on the day. Adobe, Wipro, HCL, Cognizant and Capgemini said nothing.
Business Standard / PTI (October 2026) - October 10, 2026Reported
The figures cited for Microsoft are examined
A published analysis of the H-1B data reported that around two in three of Microsoft's H-1B approvals went to people already working there, and that the two largest H-1B sponsors in the data were not among the eight suspended. This does not resolve the allegations, which rest on an investigation whose data has not been published — but it is the first attempt to check the central claim against a public dataset.
CNBC (October 10, 2026) - October 11, 2026Confirmed
Three days on, the agency record is still empty
Re-checked six public surfaces including the ETA and Secretary's newsrooms, the Federal Register and the OFLC debarment list. Nothing about this action has appeared on any of them, no official has cited a legal authority, no end date exists, nothing official has been said about certifications already approved or about I-140 and I-485 cases, no lawsuit was found, and none of the eight appears on the debarment list. What has moved since the announcement is corporate and diplomatic, not governmental.
U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification
Talk to an immigration attorney
The questions this announcement raises are exactly the kind a page cannot answer: whether your specific employing entity is covered, what your own certification's grant date was, and whether your filing is old enough to support an extension. As of October 11, 2026 there is no written notice for anyone to read, so an attorney with a case like yours is the best-informed source available.
Nothing on this page is a substitute for advice about your own case, and the questions here turn on facts a page cannot see — your filing dates, your receipt notices, your I-94, your country of birth. The two tools below exist to make that conversation shorter and cheaper, because an attorney charging by the hour should not be spending it establishing what you already know.
Finding one: LayoffNext does not recommend, refer or vet attorneys, and earns nothing from anyone you contact. Every US state bar runs a lawyer-referral or verification service, which is the reliable way to confirm that someone is licensed and in good standing before you pay them. The American Bar Association’s lawyer referral directory lists them. If cost is the obstacle, a nonprofit legal services provider may be able to help: the Justice Department keeps the official list of recognized pro bono immigration providers.
Update log
October 11, 2026, 10:00 a.m. ET
Full re-check, three days after the announcement. The core finding holds and is unchanged: nothing about this action has appeared on the ETA newsroom, the Secretary's newsroom, the OFLC announcements page, the ETA foreign labor certification page or the Federal Register, no official has cited a legal authority, and nothing official has been said about approved certifications, I-140s or I-485s. Added a sixth surface to the check — the OFLC debarment list, last regenerated the day before the announcement and carrying neither of the eight — and a new entry making the point that suspension is not debarment. What changed is outside government: Infosys filed with the Indian stock exchanges and Tata Consultancy Services issued a statement, both playing the impact down; India's foreign ministry objected and separately confirmed H-1B validity is unaffected; and a published data analysis examined the figures cited for Microsoft. Adobe, Wipro, HCL, Cognizant and Capgemini remain silent. Added what the Vice President actually said when asked about duration, and a note on reported friction with H-1B extensions that is explicitly not an announced policy.
October 8, 2026, 7:30 p.m. ET
Corrections pass. Re-checked five public agency surfaces, including the ETA newsroom where the May 2026 Cloudera suspension was published — none carried a notice of this action. Three changes to how this page states things: the announcement is now labelled confirmed, because public video of the remarks establishes what officials said, while the things they did not say stay separately labelled; the claim that nothing has been published is now bounded to the named pages and the time they were read, rather than asserted universally; and a new entry records that private written notice to the employers is contemplated by the regulation and may well exist despite no public posting. Duration was reclassified from unknown to reported, because officials did describe the suspensions as indefinite — what is missing is a date. Added Nasscom's statement. Corrected the list of events that end H-1B extensions past six years, which omitted three of the five in the regulation.
October 8, 2026, earlier
Page published, same day as the announcement. The eight company names are consistent across every source checked. Whether already-approved certifications, pending or approved I-140 petitions, and pending I-485 applications are reached is unaddressed by any agency and is recorded here as not yet known.
Frequently asked questions
What is the PERM program?
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PERM is the Labor Department process in which an employer proves that no qualified US worker is available for a specific job before sponsoring a foreign worker for a green card. It is the first of three steps for most EB-2 and EB-3 employment-based green cards, ahead of the I-140 petition and then the I-485 application. What the employer receives is a certification, not a green card.
Did the government suspend Microsoft's H-1B visas?
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No. The announcement covers PERM, which is the green card sponsorship step, and every account of it is consistent that H-1B visas were not suspended. Existing H-1B status continues under its normal rules with the same expiry date it had before, and no worker at these companies lost work authorisation because of this. The two programmes sit at different stages and are run by different agencies.
Which companies are suspended from PERM?
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Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, Capgemini. Every source we checked agrees on all eight names, and Microsoft and Adobe were named separately on the stated basis of active federal investigations. One gap matters: these are the names as spoken at a press conference, not legal entity names, and no source says which specific employing entities are covered. If you work for a US subsidiary you cannot tell from the list alone.
I work at Microsoft on an H-1B. Can I still get a green card?
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Not through a new Microsoft PERM filing while the suspension lasts. Routes that do not use PERM remain open — EB-1A extraordinary ability and the EB-2 National Interest Waiver, both of which you file for yourself — as does starting the process again with a different employer. If you already have an approved I-140, your position is considerably better than that, and the next answers cover it.
What happens to my pending PERM application?
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It stops moving. Every source that quotes the Labor Secretary directly says the Department will not process pending applications as well as not accepting new ones, and we found none saying pending cases are unaffected — though the Indian IT industry body described the action more narrowly, as a suspension from filing new applications. No public notice has appeared on the agency pages we checked, so the exact terms are not public. One thing this is not: a suspension of processing is neither a denial nor a revocation, and your application remains a pending application.
My PERM is already approved. Can my employer still file the I-140?
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Not yet known — no agency has addressed certifications that were already granted. Two things are confirmed and both matter. The I-140 is filed with USCIS, part of the Department of Homeland Security, not with the Labor Department that made this announcement. And an approved certification expires if it is not filed in support of an I-140 within 180 calendar days of the grant date, a clock that keeps running whatever has been announced.
My I-140 is already approved. Am I affected?
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Not yet known, and no agency has said. Three separate things get run together here, so take them apart. Priority-date retention attaches when the petition is approved and has no waiting period at all — it is lost only where USCIS revokes the petition for fraud, for a material error, or because the certification behind it was revoked or invalidated. The 180-day rule people are thinking of is a different protection, against withdrawal or the employer's business closing. And H-1B extensions are a third question with its own conditions. The exposure here is indirect and depends on an invalidation nobody has reported.
Can I extend my H-1B beyond six years if my PERM is frozen?
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Probably yes, and this is the most widely misread part of the story. One-year extensions need a PERM or I-140 filed at least 365 days earlier. The regulation ends that eligibility on five events: the approved certification expiring, a final denial or revocation or invalidation of it, a final denial or revocation of the I-140, a decision approving or denying the adjustment application, or administrative closure. A suspension of processing is none of them, and a denial is not final while an appeal is open.
How long will the PERM suspension last?
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Indefinitely, on what officials actually said — they described the suspensions as lasting until the administration considers its concerns addressed, with Microsoft reportedly barred until it shows it is prioritising American hiring. What nobody gave is a date or a review period. The regulation that would permit this caps an initial suspension at 180 days and requires a decision then to resume or extend, with extensions uncapped, and the Department applied that figure to another employer in May 2026 — but no official has applied it to these eight.
Can the government legally suspend one company from PERM?
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Yes, under 20 CFR 656.31(b) — though note that no official cited it and the identification is immigration counsel's, not the Department's. Where the Department learns an employer is under investigation for possible fraud or wilful misrepresentation connected to PERM, it may suspend processing of any application involving that employer until the investigation or any court proceedings conclude. The threshold is low: an investigation is enough, with no indictment or finding required. The written notice the rule requires is owed to the employer, not to the public.
Should I change employers because of the PERM suspension?
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A new employer must start a new PERM from the beginning, which takes a long time. If you have an approved I-140, your priority date generally moves with you, which changes the arithmetic considerably. Weigh your H-1B six-year date first, because that is the deadline a fresh process has to beat, and speak with an immigration attorney before resigning anything.
Does the suspension affect Microsoft employees on L-1, O-1 or STEM OPT?
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Yes, in the sense that matters: the suspension blocks the employer's PERM filings regardless of what status the worker currently holds, so anyone at these companies waiting on a PERM-based green card is affected. The visas and work authorisations themselves are not suspended. L-1 holders should note separately that L-1 time counts against the H-1B six-year limit rather than sitting alongside it.
Does this affect people laid off from Microsoft who are in the 60-day grace period?
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No. The grace period comes from a different regulation, 8 CFR 214.1(l)(2), and nothing in this announcement touches it. After a qualifying termination it runs for up to 60 consecutive days or until the end of the authorized validity period, whichever is shorter, once during each authorized validity period, and it is discretionary rather than guaranteed. A separate proposed rule would remove it, which is a different story on a different timetable and has its own tracker on this site.
Will other companies be suspended from PERM next?
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No official has named another company as suspended from PERM. Officials did describe investigations reaching beyond these eight employers, including into alleged visa fraud at a number of universities, but an investigation is not a suspension and we will not list a company here until one is actually named. This page is where that would change.
