On October 8, 2026, Vice President JD Vance made a sweeping announcement. Eight companies can no longer file new PERM applications. Axios explained the distinction clearly within hours of the news. Microsoft and Adobe lead the list, alongside six IT outsourcing and staffing firms. Vance framed the announcement around H-1B abuse, but PERM is a different filing entirely.
What the Administration Actually Suspended
Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said DOL will not accept new PERM applications from these companies. Pending PERM cases these employers already filed are frozen too. Nothing here touches an H-1B petition, an approved H-1B, or an existing green card. PERM only covers the labor certification step tied to certain future green card filings. Vance gave no end date, saying only that the pause will last as long as it needs to. Still, the companies named here keep running their current workforce as before.
Difference Between PERM and H-1B
H-1B petitions go through the Labor Condition Application, not PERM. DOL built the LCA specifically for H-1B wage and working-condition attestations. PERM instead supports green card sponsorship, mainly under the EB-2 and EB-3 categories. A worker can hold H-1B status for years without ever touching PERM. EB-1, EB-5, and most NIW green card filings skip PERM entirely too, so this pause leaves them untouched. That means this suspension can’t revoke, shorten, or pause anyone’s current H-1B approval. Our H-1B Visa team can walk you through exactly which filing governs your situation.
Vance’s Claims vs. Policy Reality
Vance accused Microsoft specifically of abusing the system at American workers’ expense. He said Microsoft laid off about 6,000 American workers over the past year. In that same period, he said the company sponsored roughly 6,300 H-1B workers and nearly 3,000 green cards. Those figures come from Vance’s own remarks, and we haven’t independently verified them. Notice that his rhetoric centers on H-1B, yet the actual suspension hits PERM, a separate green card track. Contact our team if you want help sorting the policy from the politics in your own case.
What This Means for Employees
Your H-1B status stays just as valid as it was last week. Any green card you already hold or already received stays valid too. Only a new or pending PERM filing tied to EB-2 or EB-3 sponsorship sits frozen right now. If your green card path runs through PERM, expect real delay while this holds. Our green card team can map out alternative timelines while you wait this out.
What Employers Should Do Now
Don’t file a new PERM application tied to one of these eight companies yet. Keep filing and renewing H-1B petitions normally, since LCA filings aren’t affected here. The same goes for L-1, O-1, and other nonimmigrant categories that never touch PERM. Review every pending PERM case to see exactly where it sits in DOL’s queue. Document your current U.S. hiring and layoff numbers now, before anyone asks you to. Companies sponsoring foreign talent through our Employment Immigration practice should treat this as a narrow but real risk.
How Our Firm Can Help
Headlines about H-1B and PERM get blurred together constantly, and that confusion costs people real time. Our attorneys track which filing actually governs your situation, not just the news cycle. We’ll help you understand where your case actually stands today. Book a consultation with The Law Office of Olena Manilich, and let’s separate what changed from what didn’t.
