PERM suspensions announced by the Department of Labor

A running record, newest first: each action’s date, who announced it, the employers the Department named, and the source. The most recent, on October 8, 2026, named eight employers.

Published October 11, 2026·Record last checked against its sources October 11, 2026, 07:20 UTC

The record

1. October 8, 2026 · a White House press conference, 14:06 to 15:00 UTC

   Announced by

   Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, with Vice President JD Vance

   Employers named

   Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL, Capgemini, Microsoft, Adobe

   What was announced

   Suspended the eight employers from the PERM program. The Secretary said the Department would not accept or process new PERM applications from them.

   Reason given

   The Secretary said Microsoft and Adobe were suspended “due to multiple active federal investigations”. The Department’s Inspector General has been investigating alleged fraud in the H-1B and PERM programs since July 2026.

   Duration

   No duration given

   Source

   The White House, October 8, 2026, CNBC, October 8, 2026 The Department had published no written release when we last checked.

2. September 8, 2026

   Announced by

   Department of Labor Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito, in two posts on X

   Employers named

   Cognizant, Cloudera

   What was announced

   The Inspector General posted “@Cognizant’s PERM filings are suspended” at 13:49 UTC, and “One more. @cloudera: PERM filings SUSPENDED.” at 14:51 UTC. His office’s release of September 18 says the Department suspended visa applications from Cognizant and Cloudera pending a criminal investigation.

   Reason given

   The Inspector General said his office was investigating alleged fraud in the H-1B and PERM programs, with the White House Fraud Task Force.

   Duration

   No duration given

   Source

   The Inspector General’s post on Cognizant (@USLaborIG, on X), September 8, 2026, The Inspector General’s post on Cloudera (@USLaborIG, on X), September 8, 2026, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, September 18, 2026

3. May 12, 2026

   Announced by

   Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

   Employers named

   Cloudera

   What was announced

   Suspended processing of all PERM applications filed by, or on behalf of, Cloudera, for 180 days.

   Reason given

   The Department cited a Justice Department lawsuit alleging that Cloudera’s PERM recruitment excluded qualified US workers.

   Duration

   180 days

   Source

   U.S. Department of Labor, May 12, 2026

What was announced on October 8, 2026

On Thursday, October 8, 2026, Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling announced that the Department of Labor was suspending eight employers from the PERM program: Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL, Capgemini, Microsoft and Adobe. Vice President JD Vance took part in the announcement. The Secretary said the Department would not accept or process new PERM applications from these companies. Some reports say applications already pending are on hold too. When we last checked, the Department had published no written release that settles it.

The Secretary said Microsoft and Adobe were suspended “due to multiple active federal investigations”. The Department’s Inspector General has been investigating alleged fraud in the H-1B and PERM programs since July 2026. These are the government’s statements. We know of no published finding against any of the eight. No duration was given.

Of the companies he named, the Secretary said: “Since 2009, just these companies alone have requested almost 3 million foreign workers. They’ve received over 230,000 H-1B visas approvals and over 100,000 permanent labor certifications.” These are his figures. They run from 2009 and include H-1B visas, so they can’t be compared with the disclosure counts below, which start in October 2012 and cover PERM only.

Microsoft said in a statement that “the vast majority of Microsoft employees in the United States are Americans”, and that about 80% of the roughly 6,000 H-1B applications it submitted in the last fiscal year were to extend or change the status of existing employees. (CNBC, October 8, 2026.)

We found no public statement from the other seven when we last checked.

What PERM is

PERM (Program Electronic Review Management) is the Department of Labor’s permanent labor certification program. Before most employers can sponsor a foreign worker for an employment-based green card, the Department must certify that there aren’t enough able, willing, qualified and available US workers for the job, and that hiring the foreign worker won’t adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similar US workers. Certification is the first step. US Citizenship and Immigration Services decides the green card later.

The eight employers in DOL’s PERM disclosure files

The Department publishes every PERM case it decides. These counts are from those files, for cases decided from October 1, 2012 to June 30, 2026: 1,422,013 cases in all. A year’s figure is the cases decided in it, not applications filed.

• No cases decided under Cognizant Technology Solutions U.S. Corporation's own name since July 12, 2024, through June 30, 2026, the last date DOL's files cover.
• No cases decided under Infosys Limited's own name since January 2, 2024, through June 30, 2026, the last date DOL's files cover.
• No cases decided under Wipro Limited's own name since April 22, 2025, through June 30, 2026, the last date DOL's files cover.

Every name counted

As DOL’s files spell them, with each name’s cases decided. Counted: each employer’s own name in every spelling, plus its one US filing entity, named in brackets. Subsidiaries carrying the employer’s name that file under their own names are on their own line and not counted. Separately branded subsidiaries, and unrelated firms with similar names, are neither counted nor listed.

• Microsoft (Microsoft Corporation): MICROSOFT CORPORATION (27,628) · Microsoft Corporation (4,486) · Microsoft Coporation (2) · Microsoft Corporation (1)Related companies filing under their own names, not counted above: Microsoft Operations Puerto Rico, LLC (2 cases, last decision August 22, 2016) · Microsoft Online, Inc. (1 case, last decision May 17, 2024) · Microsoft Caribbean, Inc. (2 cases, last decision September 16, 2025) · Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc. (1 case, last decision April 25, 2014) · Microsoft Licensing, GP (1 case, last decision February 28, 2013)
• Cognizant (Cognizant Technology Solutions U.S. Corporation): COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS US CORPORATION (22,252) · COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS CORPORATION (1)
• Tata Consultancy Services (Tata Consultancy Services Limited): TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED (11,019) · TATA CONSLTANCY SERVICES LIMITED (4)
• Infosys (Infosys Limited): INFOSYS LTD. (9,819) · INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED (447)Related companies filing under their own names, not counted above: Infosys Public Services, Inc. (140 cases, last decision May 27, 2025)
• HCL (HCL America Inc.): HCL AMERICA INC. (5,242) · HCL America, Inc. (340) · HCL America Inc. (41) · HCL America, Inc (1)Related companies filing under their own names, not counted above: HCL America Solutions, Inc. (45 cases, last decision April 22, 2026)
• Capgemini (Capgemini America, Inc.): CAPGEMINI AMERICA, INC. (3,938) · Capgemini America, Inc. (459)Related companies filing under their own names, not counted above: Capgemini Financial Services USA Inc. (859 cases, last decision April 30, 2020) · Capgemini U.S. LLC (342 cases, last decision March 22, 2017) · Capgemini Government Solutions LLC (5 cases, last decision October 25, 2021)
• Wipro (Wipro Limited): WIPRO LIMITED (2,991) · Wipro Limited (523)Related companies filing under their own names, not counted above: Wipro VLSI Design Services, LLC (12 cases, last decision March 5, 2025) · Wipro Pari Inc. (1 case, last decision March 4, 2026)
• Adobe (Adobe Inc.): Adobe Inc. (1,901) · ADOBE SYSTEMS INCORPORATED (743) · ADOBE INC. (94) · Adobe, Inc. (6)

US postings on their own careers sites

Zeltru reads employers’ own careers sites every night. This is how many postings in the US each of the eight listed on the nights we read it. The counts show what was listed. They don’t show why a count changes.

* October 8, Adobe. Our reading: 16:00 UTC, complete. Announcement: 14:06 to 15:00 UTC. The 87 US postings that left the count that night were last listed on October 5, 2026, before the announcement. A posting leaves the count on the third reading in a row it is missing.

What the data can’t tell you

• Whether any allegation is true. The Department has described investigations. We know of no published findings, and an allegation is not a finding.
• The written terms of the October 8, 2026 action. When we last checked, the Department had published no written release. So we can’t say from its own text whether the suspension covers applications already pending, or how long it lasts.
• Applications filed. The disclosure files list cases by the date they were decided. A year with few or no decisions for an employer says nothing about how many it filed. The files end on June 30, 2026, before any of the 2026 suspensions could show in them.
• Anything before October 2012, or filed under other names. Our counts start in fiscal 2013, so they can’t be compared with the Secretary’s figures from 2009. Subsidiaries filing under their own names are not counted, and neither are similarly named firms.
• Why a posting count moves. We count postings listed on each employer’s own careers site. A count doesn’t show whether any posting relates to a PERM application, and a change after October 8, 2026 doesn’t show a cause.
• Postings at six of the eight. We don’t track Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro or HCL, and we can’t currently read Microsoft’s or Cognizant’s careers sites. The one Capgemini board we read lists postings in Germany only, so it gives no US count.
• Every action against these employers. This record lists PERM suspensions in which the Department’s own announcement named the employer. It is not a list of every enforcement action.

Sources

• The White House, October 8, 2026: Vice President JD Vance holds press conference on fighting visa fraud (video)
• CNBC, October 8, 2026: U.S. suspends Microsoft, Adobe from green-card labor program in foreign worker crackdown (news report)
• The Inspector General’s post on Cognizant (@USLaborIG, on X), September 8, 2026: “@Cognizant’s PERM filings are suspended”
• The Inspector General’s post on Cloudera (@USLaborIG, on X), September 8, 2026: “One more. @cloudera: PERM filings SUSPENDED.”
• U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, September 18, 2026: Inspector General Anthony P. D’Esposito: President Trump takes historic action to combat foreign labor fraud
• U.S. Department of Labor, May 12, 2026: US departments of Labor, Justice announce enforcement actions against Cloudera Inc. for alleged Immigration and Nationality Act violations (release 26-734-NAT)
• U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, July 8, 2026: Office of Inspector General launches investigation into H-1B visa fraud and human trafficking to protect American workers
• U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration: Permanent Labor Certification
• U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification: Performance Data (PERM disclosure files)