Earlier this year in May 2026, US Dept. of Labor(DOL) suspended Cloudera from PERM program for 180 days. Later, it was announced by the US DOL that there are investigations going on for Cognizant and other companies. Today, October 8th, 2026, after many of these investigations, Vice President JD Vance announced the suspension of the PERM Program for 8 companies and the problem of J1 for some universities.
In this article, we will summarize the press briefing and also share the numbers that were presented by the US Dept. of Labor team and share details on what to expect for these companies and others going forward.
Background: PERM Program Suspension of Clouadera, Cognizant PERM applications Hold
Below is a brief background on what has happend so far:
- May 12, 2026: Cloudera PERM suspended for 180 days by DOL
- July 2026: Labor Office of Inspector General launched a nationwide H1B and PERM Fraud probe across many companies
- Sep 8th, 2026: Cognizant & Cloudera PERM filings suspended.
Today, October 8th, 2026, a total of 8 companies are suspended from the PERM program.
đź“ş You can watch the YouTube video of the same at: PERM Program Suspended for Microsoft, Adobe, Others.
Microsoft, Adobe, Infosys & 5 Others PERM Program Suspended
Below is the summary of the press briefing done by Vice President JD Vance along with the US Dept. of Labor team:
- PERM Program is suspended for the following 8 companies:
- Microsoft
- Adobe
- Infosys
- Cognizant
- Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
- Wipro
- HCL
- Capgemini
- The PERM Program is suspended until an indefinite period of time, as they did not really specify any date.
- During the suspension, all these 8 companies cannot file any new PERM applications with US Dept of Labor and all the current PERM applications pending with DOL would not be processed and be kept on hold for investigation.
- Below are the stats shared by Vice President JD Vance about Microsoft
- Microsoft laid off 6,000 American Workers last year
- They had 6,300 H1B workers hired during the same time
- They had about 3000 GC PERM filings around the same time
- Overall, for every US worker laid off, they had 1.5X foreign hires.
- The Labor Secreatary also shared the below numbers:
- Approximately 3 million foreign workers were requested by these companies since 2009
- 230,000 H1B visa approvals were received by these comapnies during the same time since 2009
- 100,000+ PERM Labor Certifications receieved by DOL during the same time.
- They say the pay gap between H1B worker and comparable US worker is about $20,000 less for the foreign worker.
- Also, they say that the wage difference was $48,000 less compared to US workers, if they were hired by an outsourcing company.
- They also said that about 171 indicments were issued, 203 convictions were done, 80 arrests were done and over $1 Billion idenfitied for tax payers by the Visa Fraud Strike team.
J1 Visa Probe Announced for 9 Top Tier Universities
During the press release, they also annouced J1 Visa probe for the below 9 Universities
- Harvard
- Yale
- Stanford
- Brown
- Univ. of Pittsburgh
- UC Davis
- Caltech
- Arizona State University
- MIT
The main rationale for the probe was that they found a $20,000 pay gap between J1 workers and comparable American researchers. As many of the programs are federally funded, they want to ensure Americans are working on them instead of less expensive foreign workers.
What’s Next?
So far, we do not have any official press release or FAQs from the US Department of Labor regarding the same. We can expect to see more guidance in the upcoming weeks.
If you are part of any of these companies, you should talk to your company’s attorneys and make relevant plans as needed.
What do you think of these suspensions? Share your thougths in comments section below.
Reference: White House Press Briefing by Vice President JD Vance
