PERM Suspended at Microsoft, Adobe, Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL, Cognizant and Capgemini: What H-1B Employees Should Do Now

By Dr. Alka Chopra Madan, International Evaluations. Updated October 22, 2026.

On 8 October 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor announced it will stop accepting new PERM labor certification applications from eight employers, and stop processing the ones already pending.

The companies named were Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini.

If you work for one of them and your green card process had not yet cleared the PERM stage, that process has stopped. No end date has been announced.

This article explains what the suspension actually covers, why it matters most if you are approaching the six-year limit on your H-1B, and what self-petition routes remain open to you.

What the suspension covers, and what it does not

PERM is the labor certification step DOL handles before most employer-sponsored green cards. The employer tests the labor market and shows that qualified U.S. workers are not available. Only after PERM is certified can the employer file the I-140 immigrant petition with USCIS.

The PERM announcement does not by itself end your H-1B status. This is a labor certification suspension, not an H-1B action. You can continue working, and your employer can continue to file H-1B petitions and extensions within the normal six-year limit.

The legal basis appears to be 20 CFR § 656.31(b), which allows DOL to suspend PERM processing in connection with investigations into possible fraud or willful misrepresentation. An initial suspension under that provision may run up to 180 days and can be extended while an investigation or judicial proceeding is unresolved. A suspension is not a finding of wrongdoing, and the announcement does not establish the outcome of any investigation into the named companies.

The action follows a DOL Office of Inspector General investigation into H-1B and PERM practices opened in July 2026, and earlier suspensions of new PERM filings from Cloudera and Cognizant announced in September 2026.

Two things remain unsettled. DOL had not published a public written notice in the days following the announcement, and the announcement did not say what happens to applications DOL has already certified. Officials also indicated the action could extend to additional technology companies.

Why this is urgent if you are approaching six years on H-1B

H-1B status is normally capped at six years. Two provisions of the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act allow extensions beyond that cap, and both depend on green card progress:

• AC21 § 106(a) permits one-year extensions where a labor certification or I-140 has been pending for 365 days or more.
• AC21 § 104(c) permits three-year extensions where an I-140 has been approved and the priority date is not current.

Both of those paths assume your case keeps moving. A PERM that DOL will not process does not move toward an I-140.

The one-year extension depends on time, not progress. Under 8 CFR 214.2(h)(13)(iii)(D), it is available once 365 days have passed since the PERM was filed. So a PERM filed more than a year ago can still support one-year extensions while it sits suspended, as long as it is not denied. What it cannot do is reach the approved I-140 needed for the three-year extension. In every case, the extension itself still requires a separate H-1B petition from your employer; a pending or approved I-140 does not extend status on its own.

The people most exposed are those whose PERM was filed less than a year ago, or not filed at all. If you were relying on one of those to carry you past the six-year limit, that assumption no longer holds. The closer you are to the limit, the less time you have to establish an alternative.

This is the practical reason the suspension matters more than the headlines suggest. For most affected employees it delays a green card. For employees near the six-year mark without a PERM that is already a year old, it affects whether they can remain in the United States at all.

The two routes that do not need your employer

Two employment-based categories allow you to petition for yourself. Neither requires PERM, an employer sponsor, or a labor market test. Your employer's suspension does not touch them.

EB-1A — Extraordinary Ability

For individuals who can demonstrate sustained national or international acclaim in their field. USCIS evaluates evidence against ten regulatory criteria, of which you must satisfy at least three (or show a one-time major internationally recognized award), followed by a final merits determination of whether the record as a whole establishes extraordinary ability.

This is not limited to academics. Engineers, product leaders, data scientists and architects have qualified on the strength of patents, original contributions of major significance, judging the work of others, published material about their work, and leading roles in distinguished organizations.

EB-2 NIW — National Interest Waiver

For individuals holding an advanced degree or exceptional ability whose work merits waiving the job offer and labor certification requirements. USCIS applies the three-prong framework from Matter of Dhanasar: the proposed endeavor must have substantial merit and national importance, you must be well positioned to advance it, and on balance it must benefit the United States to waive the usual requirements.

What both give you

An approved I-140 in either category restarts the green card process independently of your employer, and supports H-1B extensions beyond the six-year limit under the AC21 provisions described above. Both are also portable — the petition belongs to you, not to the company.

If you were born in India, look at EB-1A before NIW

Six of the eight suspended companies are IT services firms whose affected employees were predominantly born in India. For them, the choice between EB-1A and NIW deserves a close look.

EB-2 NIW sits inside the EB-2 category. An Indian national filing NIW joins the same EB-2 India queue they were already in. The self-petition independence is real and the H-1B extension benefit is real, but the wait is unchanged.

EB-1 India moves years ahead of EB-2 India. In the October 2026 Visa Bulletin, EB-1 India's final action date is February 1, 2023, while EB-2 India's is November 1, 2013 — a gap of roughly nine years. Cutoff dates are not a prediction of any individual wait, but for a candidate who can meet the EB-1A standard, that difference often decides the strategy.

The practical sequence for Indian nationals:

1. Assess EB-1A first. If the evidence supports it, file EB-1A.
2. Consider NIW where EB-1A is not reachable on the current record, or as a parallel filing.
3. Understand that filing both is permitted — they are separate petitions and one does not prejudice the other.

One point on priority dates. Priority date retention requires a previously approved I-140. If your PERM was pending and never certified, no I-140 was ever filed, so there is no earlier priority date to carry forward. A new self-petition establishes a new priority date. If you have an approved I-140 from an earlier employer, that date may be retained. This is worth confirming against your own case history before assuming otherwise.

If you were born outside India or China, the backlogs are shorter and NIW is often the more straightforward route — particularly where your work is clearly in a field of national importance but does not reach the acclaim standard EB-1A requires.

The safety net was removed in August

There is a timing problem that makes a rushed filing genuinely risky.

On 5 August 2026, USCIS issued Policy Alert PA-2026-05, revising the Policy Manual provisions governing initial evidence, Requests for Evidence and Notices of Intent to Deny. It restored officers' discretion to deny a petition outright, without first issuing an RFE, where required initial evidence is missing or the record does not establish eligibility (more in our guide to the August 2026 evidence standard).

The same update clarified that the familiar twelve-week RFE response window is a maximum rather than a guaranteed standard, and that extensions beyond the deadline stated in the notice are not granted.

For evidence-heavy categories like EB-1A and NIW, this changes the calculation. Until August, a thin petition often drew an RFE, which functioned as a second chance to assemble the case. That assumption is no longer safe.

The numbers reflect the tightening. Across recent fiscal years, EB-2 NIW approval rates have fallen sharply from the high figures of FY2022, and EB-1A has followed the same direction. Across the first three quarters of FY2026, more NIW petitions were denied than approved, although the most recent quarter showed some recovery (see our analysis of NIW letters and approval rates).

The conclusion is uncomfortable but straightforward: filing quickly matters less than filing completely. A petition assembled in panic, missing the independent corroborating evidence USCIS now expects, can now be denied outright, without an opportunity to fix it.

Working out whether you qualify

Before spending money on a filing, establish honestly whether the evidence is there. Three things decide it.

Your record against the criteria

For EB-1A, the question is which of the ten regulatory criteria you can document with independent evidence — not which ones you could argue. Patents, publications and citation records are the familiar ones, but original contributions of major significance, critical roles in distinguished organizations, and judging the work of others carry real weight for industry professionals.

For NIW, the question is whether your proposed endeavor has demonstrable national importance beyond your employer's commercial interest, and whether your record shows you are well positioned to advance it.

Your credentials as USCIS will read them

For NIW, which requires an advanced degree or exceptional ability, USCIS closely examines the equivalency of foreign educational credentials, particularly three-year degrees and qualifications obtained outside the United States. (EB-1A has no degree requirement.) A formal credential evaluation establishes equivalency against U.S. standards and addresses that challenge before it is raised rather than after.

Be careful with three-year degrees. For EB-2, a combination of education and work experience generally cannot substitute for a missing U.S.-equivalent bachelor's degree, as it sometimes can for H-1B. Progressive experience does count toward the advanced-degree standard (a bachelor's degree followed by five years of progressive experience), and a work experience evaluation can help document that experience. Where the degree itself falls short, the exceptional ability route may need to be assessed with your attorney.

Independent corroboration

Recommendation letters from colleagues and supervisors are most useful when they give specific first-hand detail, and USCIS now routinely asks for independent documentary evidence to corroborate them. An expert opinion letter from a qualified independent expert in your field — someone with no connection to you or your employer — addresses the record from outside your professional circle. It can explain the significance of your patents, publications or results, but it cannot replace the documents that prove them.

Where to start

If you are at one of the eight companies and your green card process has stopped, the sequence that makes sense is:

1. Establish your H-1B timeline. How much time remains before the six-year limit, and when was your PERM filed? That determines how much runway you have.
2. Assess your record honestly against EB-1A, and against NIW if EB-1A is not reachable.
3. Address the credential and corroboration gaps before filing, not after. The August policy change means there may be no second chance.
4. Speak to an immigration attorney about anything that turns on status, timing or your specific case strategy.