The Next Web covers India's response to the Labor Department suspending Microsoft, Infosys, TCS and five other employers from PERM. Loren Locke says most affected H-1B workers will be able to wait it out or have time to switch jobs.
From the Article
"Most people will either be able to wait it out or have time to switch jobs."
Locke Immigration Law's Take
The headline is about diplomacy, but the operative fact for workers is narrower. The Labor Department has stopped accepting new PERM applications from eight employers (Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini) and stopped processing their pending ones. PERM labor certification is the first step of most employer-sponsored green cards. It is not the H-1B. As India's foreign ministry itself pointed out, the suspension does not cancel anyone's H-1B status or their family's. What it does is freeze the green card process at its first step for the employees of those eight companies.
Loren's point is that for most of those employees this is a delay, not a cliff. The people with a real clock are H-1B holders approaching the six-year limit, because extensions past year six generally depend on a PERM application or an approved I-140 already being on file. Someone whose I-140 is already approved is in a much stronger position: they can usually extend in three-year increments and keep their place in line if they move to a new employer. Someone with no filing yet, or a pending PERM, has fewer moves. For them the question is whether the suspension lifts before their status runs out, or whether a job change to an unaffected employer, and a fresh PERM there, is the safer path. Lawyers quoted in the coverage note that the Department can suspend an employer on its own for only 180 days, and expect the action to be challenged in court.
The practical step is to map each person's dates now: H-1B start date and six-year limit, PERM and I-140 status, and priority date. That shows who can wait and who needs a plan B. For the strongest candidates, there is also a route that never touches PERM. A self-petitioned EB-1A or an EB-2 National Interest Waiver does not need a labor certification, and so does not depend on whether a particular employer is in good standing with the Labor Department.
Key Takeaways
- The Labor Department suspended eight employers, including Microsoft, Infosys, TCS and Wipro, from the PERM program, halting new and pending labor certifications for their employees.
- PERM is separate from the H-1B: the suspension does not by itself affect H-1B status, but it stalls the first step of the green card for affected workers.
- Loren Locke: most affected workers "will either be able to wait it out or have time to switch jobs." Those closest to the H-1B six-year limit without an approved I-140 are most exposed.
- EB-1A and the National Interest Waiver skip PERM entirely, so they are not affected by an employer's PERM suspension.