{"id":2358,"date":"2026-10-09T09:03:47","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T04:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2358"},"modified":"2026-10-09T09:03:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T04:03:47","slug":"the-skilled-foreign-tech-workers-green-card-program-under-attack-from-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2358","title":{"rendered":"The skilled foreign tech workers’ green card program under attack from Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The US government said on Thursday it is suspending<\/a> some of the world\u2019s biggest tech and IT firms, including Microsoft, Cognizant and Capgemini, from a key green card program that allows skilled foreign workers to gain permanent residency through their employment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Senior US officials cited alleged fraud as the reason behind the move, saying \u200bcompanies have been using the program to replace American workers with cheaper foreign workers, and it comes as the latest step in the Trump \u200cadministration\u2019s crackdown on skilled foreign labour.<\/p>\n

<\/a>What is under suspension?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The suspension is targeting a key employer-sponsorship mechanism, called the Permanent Labor Certification or PERM, which is used by major technology companies and outsourcing firms. The US government said that for certain companies, it would not accept any new PERM applications or process any pending ones.<\/p>\n

PERM came into effect in 2005, aiming to speed up the long processing \u200btimes experienced under the previous paper-based \u201cAlien Employment Certification\u201d program.<\/p>\n

Under the program, the US Department of Labour (DOL) allows an employer to sponsor a foreign worker for permanent residency. \u200bThe process is initiated by qualified US employers, and not individual workers.<\/p>\n

The Labour Department must certify to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services \u2060that there are not enough US workers who are qualified and available for a given job opportunity, and that the employment of the foreign worker will not affect the wages \u200band working conditions of similarly employed Americans.<\/p>\n

Outside of PERM and family-based routes to permanent residency, individuals can also self-petition for green cards through processes such as the EB-1A \u200bapplication for individuals with extraordinary ability or the EB-2 National Interest Waiver.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Why is it important?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The PERM program serves as a critical bridge between temporary work status and a green card for many foreign skilled workers. Many IT firms employ hundreds of thousands of workers who typically start on temporary work visas such as the H-1B, and later seek permanent residency.<\/p>\n

Without the option to be sponsored by their \u200bemployer under PERM, foreign workers could lose a key route to permanent residency and would have to stay on temporary visas for longer.<\/p>\n

For companies, recruiting foreign talent \u200bcould become harder, as many workers overseas view the path to permanent US residency as a key reason for taking a job.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Which companies are under suspension?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The US said it is suspending Microsoft and Adobe \u200calong with \u2060some of the largest IT firms in the world, including Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini.<\/p>\n

Other companies such as Meta, Amazon or Alphabet\u2019s Google remain free to participate in the program.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Why is the US freezing applications?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The move widens an ongoing crackdown on visas which the Trump administration has said cost US jobs. Vice President JD Vance said, without citing specific evidence, that companies use the PERM program to replace American employees with foreign workers and undercut their wages.<\/p>\n

Vance said on Thursday: \u201cOur message to Microsoft \u200bis: You\u2019re a great American company, but \u200byou\u2019ve got to hire great American \u2060workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The suspensions follow President Trump\u2019s move to impose a one-time $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa petitions for highly skilled foreign workers, which federal court orders have blocked.<\/p>\n

<\/a>How is PERM different from H-1B?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

H-1B is a temporary work visa that allows skilled foreign \u200bworkers to work in the US, generally for up to six years. PERM, meanwhile, is a permanent labour-certification process. The freeze \u200bdoes not appear to \u2060directly affect current holders of H-1B visas.<\/p>\n

<\/a>How curtailing PERM could backfire<\/h3>\n

Some experts said that while the PERM suspensions might target specific companies, such policies risk making the US less competitive globally by deterring highly skilled foreign talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a fallacy to think that you can protect American workers by keeping skilled foreign workers out of the country. You think that \u2060foreign talent competes \u200bwith Americans within our borders; they\u2019ll certainly compete with Americans by working abroad,\u201d said Chad Sparber, Director \u200bof the Lampert Institute for Civic and Global Affairs at Colgate University.<\/p>\n

Ahmet Gulek, Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford\u2019s Immigration Policy Lab, said that permanent residency is the primary way for talented foreign workers to stay \u200bin the country and without it, some will leave, and some will not come in the first place, even temporarily.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US government said on Thursday it is suspending some of the world\u2019s biggest tech and IT firms, including Microsoft, Cognizant and Capgemini, from a key green card program that allows skilled foreign workers to gain permanent residency through their employment. Senior US officials cited alleged fraud as the reason behind the move, saying \u200bcompanies have been using the program to replace American workers with cheaper foreign workers, and it comes as the latest step in the Trump \u200cadministration\u2019s crackdown on skilled foreign labour. What is under suspension? The suspension…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}