US suspends several technology firms from Green card program for India’s biggest IT companies: What it means for H-1B visa holders
Because these companies have been suspended from the Permanent Labor Certification Program, also known as PERM. The US government suspended several technology firms from the Green card program. The list of companies impacted include Cognizant , Capgemini, Microsoft and Adobe along with India IT giants Infosys, TCS, Wipro and HCL. Does it mean that these companies will not be able to hire workers seeking green cards to live and work in America? No. it does not suspend the H-1B program, commonly used by tech majors to hire skilled, non-immigrant workers While the move blocks a path to permanent residency for affected workers. As stated above, a PERM certificate is issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) and allows an employer to hire a foreign worker to work permanently in the United States.
In most instances, before the US employer can submit an immigration petition to the Department of Homeland Security’s US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the employer must obtain a certified labor certification application from the DOL’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA).
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Employer must generally show that there are not enough qualified, available US workers for the job The employer files the application In his crackdown, JD Vance specifically singled out Microsoft saying: “So if the H-1B visa is how the people get into the country, the PERM program is how they stay in the United States to begin with,” Vance said. “So, in the last year, Microsoft — and I want to be clear about the data here, so let me check this — but Microsoft laid off last year 6,000 American workers,” Vance said. “At the same time, the company benefited from 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards.”
The DOL must certify to the USCIS that there are not sufficient U.S workers able, willing, qualified, and available to accept the job opportunity in the area of intended employment and that employment of the foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed US workers. “Now there has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused the system more than Microsoft.