When the Company Stops, the Green Card Stops: The Immigration Path for Engineers Who Want to Work in the US

The Labor Department shut Microsoft and Adobe out of PERM

On October 8, 2026, the US Department of Labor suspended Microsoft, Adobe, and six IT services firms from the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program[1][2]. A suspended company cannot file new applications, and applications already submitted to the Labor Department will not be processed. Whether you are an engineer already working in the US and preparing for a green card, or a student aiming to work in the US after graduation, the announcement leaves you with the same question. How tightly is my green card path tied to my employer's circumstances?

PERM is a step the company goes through

PERM is the certification a US employer obtains from the Department of Labor when it wants to hire a foreign worker permanently. The department's Office of Foreign Labor Certification says that in most cases the employer must obtain this certification before filing an immigrant petition with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)[3]. The Labor Department confirms that there are not enough US workers who are able and willing to take the job, and that hiring a foreign worker will not harm the wages and working conditions of US workers in similar jobs[3].

The applicant is the company, not the employee. The company first obtains a prevailing wage determination for the role, places job advertisements under the required process, and then files the PERM application[3]. So when a company is suspended from the program, there is little an employee can do on their own.

What happened on October 8

Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the department would not accept new applications from Cognizant, Infosys, Capgemini, Tata, Wipro, and HCL, and would not process their pending ones either[1][2]. He said Microsoft and Adobe were suspended "due to multiple active federal investigations"[1].

Sonderling said these companies had requested about 3 million foreign workers since 2009, and had received more than 230,000 H-1B visa approvals and more than 100,000 permanent labor certifications[1]. Vice President JD Vance claimed that Microsoft laid off 6,000 people in 2025 and then filled those positions with H-1B visa workers[1].

Microsoft pushed back the same day. It said most of its employees in the US are Americans, and that 80% of the roughly 6,000 H-1B applications it filed in the last fiscal year were extensions or status changes for existing employees[1][2]. It added that its new hires were also people already in the US legally, and that they amounted to 1% of its US workforce[2].

At the same event, Vance also said the government would investigate nine universities, including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. The allegation is that they abused programs for international students to drive down the wages of American workers[2].

What the suspension touches and what it does not

The suspension directly targets the labor certification stage. Immigration news outlet VisaVerge reads the measure as not automatically canceling existing H-1B status, labor certifications already granted, or I-140 petitions approved by USCIS[4]. The people hit hardest are employees who have not yet cleared labor certification. Their green card process stays frozen where it is until the Labor Department resumes processing[4].

This is not the first time PERM has stopped because of a company's own situation. Bloomberg Law reported that Google paused filing new PERM applications in late January 2023 amid layoffs, while continuing to pursue applications already filed[5]. Right after layoffs, it becomes hard to meet the Labor Department's rules that protect US workers. Whether the government suspends a company, as it did this time, or the company stops on its own, the result is the same. The employee's green card process stops on the company's schedule.

What is still undecided

• The Labor Department has not said when the suspension will be lifted. It is also not yet confirmed whether pending applications will be processed once it is lifted.
• The details of the federal investigations into Microsoft and Adobe have not been made public.
• How the investigation of the nine universities will affect international students' path to work after graduation cannot be told from the announcement alone.

One more number to check when choosing a company

Judged only by H-1B filing volume, big companies look like the safest bet. According to Levels.fyi data cited by CNBC, Amazon filed the most H-1B petitions in 2026 at 35,426, and Microsoft ranked fourth at 21,706. The median base salary of Microsoft's H-1B workers was $180,710[1]. Yet companies with large filing volumes are the ones that appear on this suspension list. A high filing count also means a higher chance of becoming a target of investigations and politics.

If you are choosing a company with a US career in mind, it is worth writing down a few more things next to salary and tech stack.

• Whether the company has actually filed PERM applications in recent years, and whether it has ever paused them after layoffs.
• When it starts the green card process after you join, and how long you wait before the labor certification stage.
• Whether it is caught up in a government investigation or a lawsuit.

Because PERM is filed by the company, an employee has almost no way to push it forward directly. That means the moment when someone preparing for a US career can act ahead of time is when choosing the company. Asking these three questions in an interview or when you receive an offer is the preparation you can do now.

References

[1] CNBC. U.S. suspends Microsoft, Adobe from green card labor program in foreign worker crackdown. 2026-10-08.

[2] Aisha Malik. US bars Microsoft, Adobe, and major IT firms from green card program for skilled foreign workers. TechCrunch, 2026-10-08.

[3] U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification. Permanent Labor Certification (PERM). Accessed 2026-10-10.

[4] VisaVerge. PERM Suspension: Eight Tech Firms Face Green Card Halt. 2026-10-08.

[5] Bloomberg Law. Rolling Tech Layoffs Snag Green Card Prospects for H-1B Workers. 2023.