On October 8, 2026, U.S. officials said the administration was suspending eight employers from the Department of Labor’s PERM labor-certification program. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the department would accept no new PERM applications involving those companies and would not process pending ones, Reuters reported. The announcement concerns a step in many employer-sponsored green-card cases; it does not, by itself, cancel a worker’s existing H-1B status. The exact scope and implementation remain unclear because no official suspension order was located in the contemporaneous reporting.
Did the U.S. halt green-card processing for Infosys, TCS and Cognizant?
Officials said the administration was suspending Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini from the PERM program. Reuters quoted Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling as saying: “We will not accept any new or process any pending permanent labor certification applications involving these companies.” AP reported Vice President JD Vance announced the action on October 8, 2026.
The statement describes a halt to PERM labor certifications involving the named employers—not a blanket end to green-card processing or a suspension of the entire immigration system. Reuters reported that TCS declined to comment and that the other listed companies did not immediately respond; AP reported no immediate responses from the companies it contacted. AP’s October 8 report and Reuters’ report, republished by Investing.com, attribute the action to administration officials.
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No official Department of Labor order implementing the suspension was located in the reporting available on October 8. As a result, the legal basis, exact effective date, duration, company-specific case scope, exceptions and any review or appeal route have not been established. The companies’ inclusion and the reported treatment of applications should therefore be understood as officials’ announcement and contemporaneous reporting, rather than details independently confirmed in a published order.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsWhat PERM does—and what the announcement covers
PERM is the Department of Labor’s permanent labor-certification process. For most employment-based green-card cases sponsored by an employer, the employer must use it to demonstrate that hiring the foreign worker will not adversely affect U.S. workers’ wages, working conditions or job opportunities. If the labor certification is approved, the case proceeds to the next stage with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). See the Department of Labor’s overview of the permanent labor certification process.
The reported suspension is about PERM applications involving the named employers. It does not establish that every immigration case connected to those companies is stopped. Nor does the announcement establish what will happen to a labor certification already approved or to a case that has moved on to a later USCIS stage. Those details depend on the official directive and the particular case.
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Does the PERM suspension affect pending applications?
According to Reuters’ account of Sonderling’s statement, both new and pending permanent labor-certification applications involving the named employers would be affected. That is the reported scope of the announcement; without a published DOL directive, the precise implementation and any exceptions remain unconfirmed.
The number of workers or pending applications affected has not been established in the reporting. DOL’s general PERM data cannot be used to calculate an employer-specific impact total.
Can I keep working on my H-1B?
PERM and H-1B are separate programs. H-1B is a temporary-worker program, with employer wage obligations and protections for U.S. workers and H-1B workers described by the Department of Labor. The reported PERM suspension does not itself cancel an individual’s existing H-1B status. Reuters said the freeze did not appear to directly affect current H-1B holders, though it could interrupt a common employer-sponsored route to permanent residency. See the Department of Labor’s H-1B program overview.
This distinction does not determine anyone’s individual right to work or status. Those depend on the person’s own immigration documents and circumstances, not just the PERM announcement.
What happens to an employer-sponsored green-card case now?
The relevant questions are the employer, the case stage and the worker’s separate immigration status. The available reporting does not establish individual eligibility, outcomes or a workaround, so it cannot support a prediction about a particular case.
| Case stage | What the announcement establishes | What remains unclear |
|---|---|---|
| New PERM filing | Reuters reported officials said DOL would not accept new applications involving the named employers. | The official directive’s effective date, scope and any exceptions. |
| Pending PERM application | Reuters reported officials said DOL would not process pending applications involving the named employers. | How the agency will implement the halt for a specific case. |
| Approved labor certification | The reporting does not establish that an approved certification is withdrawn or otherwise affected. | Whether and how the official directive addresses approved certifications. |
| Later USCIS stage | The reported announcement concerns PERM labor certification at DOL. | Whether any later-stage case is affected; the reporting does not resolve this. |
For a case-specific decision, a worker should review the case status and documents with an independent immigration professional. The announcement alone is not enough to determine whether a filing can proceed, what happens to a pending case, or what a worker should do next.
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How long does PERM processing normally take?
DOL’s processing page, as of October 5, 2026, listed analyst and audit review queues at cases filed in December 2025 and reconsideration requests at May 2026. The department reported an average analyst-review time of 336 calendar days for August 2026 and cautioned that actual processing varies by case. These are agency-wide figures—not a timeline for any employer covered by the reported action. Check DOL’s PERM Processing Times page for updated information.
DOL also publishes performance data for PERM determinations. Its FY2026 Q3 release covers determinations issued from October 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026; the department notes that a small percentage may change in later quarterly releases after an appeal or redetermination. The data is available on DOL’s Performance Data page and does not provide a verified count of workers affected by this announcement.
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