US suspends eight firms from green-card program

The US Labor Department suspended Microsoft, Adobe and six IT outsourcing firms from filing under PERM, the labor-certification step required for most employment-based green cards. Officials linked the action to federal fraud investigations and alleged replacement of US workers. The administration also opened visa-abuse investigations involving nine universities.

• 8 firmsSuspended from PERM filings
• 6,000 workersUS employees Microsoft laid off — Figure cited by Vice President Vance
• 6,300 visasH-1B visas cited by Vance
• 9 universitiesFacing visa-abuse investigations

Q1

What is PERM used for?

PERM generally requires an employer to advertise a job and show that hiring a foreign worker will not harm US wages or opportunities.

Q2

Why did officials suspend the firms?

Officials alleged that employers used weak recruitment advertising to claim a shortage of qualified Americans, then hired foreign workers through employment-based immigration routes.

Q3

What changes for affected workers?

The Labor Department will neither accept new PERM filings from Microsoft nor process its pending applications, delaying a common green-card route.

Q4

How broad are the parallel investigations?

Nine universities, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, face investigations into possible visa abuse linked to international-student recruitment practices.

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