The US has suspended PERM applications for Microsoft, Adobe and six IT outsourcing firms

On 8 October, according to a statement by Secretary Keith Sonderling, the US Department of Labour suspended the acceptance of new applications and the processing of pending applications for PERM labour certification relating to eight companies, including Microsoft, Adobe and six major IT outsourcing firms. On the same day, President Donald Trump’s administration announced investigations into nine universities in connection with possible abuses of J-1 exchange visas.

Which companies are subject to the restrictions?

According to Sonderling, the agency will not accept new applications or process pending applications for permanent labour certification relating to Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini. The last six companies are major IT outsourcing firms.

Vice-President JD Vance He stated that the restriction would remain in place «for as long as necessary» to ensure that companies changed their recruitment practices. He did not specify a public timeframe.

What is PERM and who is affected by the suspension?

PERM — is a labour certification procedure administered by the US Department of Labour, which is usually a stage in many employer-sponsored immigration cases, particularly those under the EB-2 and EB-3 categories. During this process, the employer must demonstrate that the foreign national’s employment will not adversely affect the wages or working conditions of US workers.

The decision announced applies to new and pending PERM applications submitted by the eight employers named. It does not provide for the automatic cancellation of existing H-1B visas and does not apply to all foreign workers or the entire H-1B scheme.

The administration’s arguments and Microsoft’s response

Vens linked the action against Microsoft to the fact that, according to him, the company made 6,000 American employees redundant last year, whilst at the same time receiving around 6,300 H-1B approvals and nearly 3,000 green cards. The official did not cite any causal link between the redundancies and the recruitment of foreign specialists.

Sonderling also stated that, since 2009, eight companies had submitted applications for nearly 3 million foreign workers, receiving over 230,000 H-1B approvals and over 100,000 PERM certifications. These are the figures cited by the minister; the methodology and a breakdown by employer have not been made public.

Microsoft responded by stating that approximately 80% of its H-1B applications for the previous financial year related to the renewal or change of status of existing employees, rather than new hires. The company also reported that it pays H-1B workers at the same rate as employees in comparable roles.

Project Firewall and a separate audit of universities

The decision regarding PERM is separate from Project Firewall — a monitoring initiative by the Department of Labour concerning potential abuses of the H-1B programme, launched on 19 September 2025. The department reported that it had launched nearly 200 investigations under this initiative; among the possible consequences of breaches, the DOL cited the payment of outstanding wages, civil penalties or exclusion from the programme.

Also, on 8 October, the administration announced an investigation into nine universities over possible abuses of J-1 exchange visas. The Inspector General of the Ministry of Labour Anthony D’Esposito stated that the summonses had already been served; the institutions named included Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The investigations relate to allegations by the administration concerning the possible influence of foreign interests, inappropriate financial ties or visa abuses in federally funded research. No findings of misconduct, sanctions or the termination of J-1 programmes for these universities have been announced as yet.