Department of Labor (DOL) Announces Suspension of PERM Program for Microsoft and Other Companies Amid Fraud Investigations
From USADNEWS Volume XVII, Fall Issue
During a White House press conference held on October 8, 2026 by the Fraud Task Force, Vice President JD Vance and Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling announced that Microsoft and several other companies had been indefinitely suspended from submitting labor certification applications through the PERM program.
This suspension also includes Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini. Secretary Sonderling noted in particular that Adobe and Microsoft were the subject of several ongoing federal investigations related to hiring practices. Vice President Vance highlighted concerns that Microsoft was replacing laid-off U.S. workers with foreign workers hired through the H-1B and PERM programs.
The announcement comes as the Department of Labor (DOL) has ramped up investigation efforts into fraud within the program. Exactly one month ago on September 8, 2026, the DOL Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito announced on X that the DOL had suspended PERM and H-1B filings for two major IT companies, Cognizant and Cloudera, pending fraud investigations.
The suspensions came after D’Esposito’s office received hundreds of whistleblower tips that led him to investigate the IT firms for fraud within the PERM and H-1B programs, according to what he told Sara Gonzalez of BlazeTV.
“@DOLOIG is on the hunt,” D’Esposito stated on X. “Threats to American workers will NOT be tolerated. Alongside @WHFraudTF, we’re following facts, fraud and finances. Handcuffs await.”
The investigations into Cognizant and Cloudera are just the latest in a ramped up effort that the DOL rolled out in July to root out fraud in the H-1B and green card programs. Many of the complaints appear to revolve around the misclassification of technology jobs in order to advertise them as lower wage positions.
For instance, on September 4, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) disclosed the following on X: “USCIS in Vermont identified H-1B petitions from a major IT consulting company that classified skilled technology jobs at wage levels below what the positions’ duties and requirements supported. This practice undercuts required wages and creates unfair competition for U.S. workers. We denied and revoked multiple petitions, protecting American workers and preserving the integrity of employment-based immigration programs.”
The immigration news and analysis site, immigration-analytics.com, points out that both Cloudera and Cognizant have gotten in trouble in the past for their immigration practices. In April 2026, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Cloudera over allegations it was rigging the recruitment process against US workers and the DOL suspended all of the company’s PERM applications for 180 days. Cognizant was sued in 2017 by three American-born employees in 2017 for allegedly discriminating against non-Indian employees, resulting in a 2024 verdict in favor of the plaintiffs. Another judgement was brought against Cognizant in a separate case in December 2025, which also found that the company discriminated against American-born workers.
No end date has been given for the suspensions.
