- The U.S. Labor Department paused PERM processing for eight employers, including Infosys and Microsoft.
- The pause covers new and pending labor-certification applications, potentially delaying eligible employees’ employer-sponsored green-card cases.
- India said the action could affect Indian professionals, but does not change existing H-1B status by itself.
India condemned the U.S. suspension of PERM labor-certification processing for eight technology companies, saying it could delay green-card applications for Indian professionals and undermine shared interests between the countries.
The U.S. Department of Labor, under Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, said it would stop accepting new applications involving the companies and halt processing applications already pending. The measure reaches both groups of cases.
Free toolI-94 Expiration Calculator Online
India’s Ministry of External Affairs said the suspension could affect eligible employees’ path to permanent residence. It also stressed that PERM and H-1B operate separately.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal drew a line around visa status. He said the suspension “does not, by itself, affect the validity of existing H-1B visas or the status of H-1B visa holders and their dependents.”
Eight employers are covered, with PERM at an early green-card stage
The companies named are Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Microsoft, Adobe, Capgemini and Cognizant.
PERM stands for Program Electronic Review Management. Employers generally complete this labor-certification stage before filing many employment-based green-card petitions, particularly in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories.
The pause therefore reaches an earlier step in those permanent-residence cases. A new application involving a covered employer cannot enter PERM processing, while an application already awaiting a decision faces a halt at that stage. That can delay the employer-sponsored process for affected employees.
The suspension is expected to affect thousands of Indian technology professionals who entered the United States on H-1B visas and are pursuing permanent residence through their employers. The number is an expected impact, not a count of cases already delayed.
India also rebuked Vance’s description of foreign workers
India said the U.S. measures “do not advance the shared ambitions” of the two countries. It also objected to Vice President JD Vance’s characterization of foreign workers as “indentured servants.”
The government called that description “unwarranted and deeply offensive.” The criticism accompanied its warning that the labor-certification action could affect eligible employees’ permanent-residence applications.
The suspension does not extend to every green-card case
The action covers PERM acceptance and processing for the named employers. It is not a general suspension of all U.S. green-card processing, and it does not announce a change to USCIS filing fees or visa-validity rules.
The measure also does not automatically revoke previously approved immigrant petitions or existing green cards. The stated pause is at the labor-certification stage, while existing H-1B visas and the status of holders and their dependents are not changed by the suspension itself.
