Green Card Suspension: Infosys, TCS, 6 More Barred from PERM

On October 8, 2026, the US Labor Department suspended eight employers, including Infosys, TCS, Wipro and Microsoft, from PERM, the first step of most employment-based green cards. If you work at one of them, this green card suspension leaves your H-1B valid but freezes your green card case, with no end date announced.

What the Labor Department announced

Who is suspended

The eight employers are Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, HCL Technologies, Cognizant, Capgemini, Microsoft and Adobe. Vice President JD Vance announced the action on Thursday, October 8, 2026, alongside Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling and Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Cognizant was already frozen. On September 8, 2026, Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito suspended its new PERM filings, along with Cloudera's, during a fraud probe opened in July. The October 8 action extends the same step to seven more employers.

What is suspended

PERM, short for permanent labor certification, is the Labor Department step that certifies no qualified US worker is available for a job before an employer sponsors a green card. Sonderling said the department will neither accept new PERM applications from these eight employers nor process pending ones.

Why the Labor Department says it acted

Officials cited active federal investigations and alleged visa fraud. The administration's argument is that employers certify through PERM that no US worker can fill a role, and that those certifications are false when the program is used to replace US workers with lower-paid foreign hires.

Sonderling put numbers on it. Since 2009, he said, the eight employers have:

• Requested almost 3 million foreign workers.
• Received more than 230,000 H-1B approvals.
• Obtained more than 100,000 permanent labor certifications.

The Labor Department hasn't published the data behind those figures.

Vance singled out Microsoft, saying it laid off 6,000 American workers last year while benefiting from about 6,300 H-1B visas and thousands of green card filings. Microsoft responded that about 80% of its roughly 6,000 H-1B filings last fiscal year were extensions or status changes for existing employees.

Blanche said criminal charges against companies or individuals are possible, but none have been announced.

What the green card suspension covers, and what it leaves alone

The announcement was narrow. It named one program and eight employers, and it said nothing about the steps that come after PERM.

That silence matters because a green card case moves in order: PERM at the Labor Department, then an I-140 petition and an I-485 application at USCIS. Only the first step sits with the department that made the announcement.

As of October 9, 2026, the Labor Department hasn't posted a written notice, so some details may change.

How long the PERM suspension could last

Vance said the suspensions will last "as long as it needs to." The Labor Department hasn't cited a rule, but the likeliest basis is 20 CFR 656.31(b), which lets the department pause an employer's PERM cases while possible fraud is investigated.

Under that rule, a suspension may last initially for up to 180 days. After that, the department can resume processing or extend the pause until the matter is resolved. Counted from October 8, 180 days ends around April 6, 2027, if that clock applies, and the department hasn't said it does.

The same section lets the department bar an employer from PERM for up to three years. No ban has been announced. I'd plan for months rather than weeks, because an open-ended statement from Vance and a criminal-charges warning from Blanche point to a long investigation, not a quick audit.

Who feels it first

Three groups feel this first:

• Employees at the eight employers whose PERM hasn't been filed yet, because their green card process can't start.
• Employees with a PERM already filed, because the case is stalled where it sits.
• H-1B holders nearing the six-year limit, because extensions past six years often depend on green card progress, and Indian-born workers already sit behind a per-country backlog that outlasts six years.

This differs from earlier changes. The green card rule changes reset the rules for all applicants. This one names eight employers.

What to do now

Three steps, in this order:

1. If you work at one of the eight employers, ask HR or the immigration team in writing which stage your case is at and who owns the next step.
2. Keep your PERM, I-140 and I-485 paperwork, receipt notices and pay records in one folder you control.
3. Don't resign on the news alone. The stage your case is at decides what a job change costs you, and the 60-day grace period after a job loss is unchanged, as the layoff checklist explains.

For stage-by-stage options, including the one date that decides your H-1B extensions, see what H-1B workers should do.

What to watch next

Watch for a written notice from the Labor Department, any addition to the list of eight, and the first court challenge or criminal charge. Each would change the picture above, and none has happened yet.

Conclusion

If you work at one of the eight employers, send HR one written question this week: which stage is my green card case at? I'd ask before any decision about your job, because the answer changes what a move costs you. InvestMates can map the money side of whichever path you choose.