US suspending permanent residency programme for Microsoft and Capgemini, officials say

The US is suspending eight technology firms from PERM, the labour certification step that precedes an employer-sponsored green card, citing alleged fraud. Capgemini is the only European company named, and North America is its fastest-growing region at 29% of group revenue.

The US has suspended eight technology companies from the programme that lets employers sponsor foreign staff for permanent residency. JD Vance announced it on Thursday, citing alleged fraud. One of the eight is European.

Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling named Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini alongside Microsoft and Adobe, at a White House press conference reported by Reuters. Labor Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito said subpoenas had been served. Microsoft did not immediately respond to Reuters.

What is suspended matters. PERM is the labour certification an employer must obtain before petitioning for a worker’s green card, and the department can hold applications under 20 CFR 656.31 until an investigation finishes.

It covers new filings.

Cases already filed or approved are not cancelled by it, and nobody’s current visa status changes. The wider squeeze is elsewhere, in the $103,265 fee the Department of Homeland Security proposed in August for each new capped H-1B.

This is not the first suspension.

The department’s inspector general opened a nationwide H-1B and PERM fraud investigation in July, citing fraudulent applications, wage kickbacks and benching, then held new filings from Cognizant and the data firm Cloudera in September. Separately, the Justice Department took $3.2M from OpenAI in August over how it advertised PERM roles. No criminal charges have been brought in the labour investigation.

Capgemini is the European name on the list.

The Paris company employs 421,000 people and took EUR 1,721M from North America in the first quarter, a region worth 29% of group revenue and growing faster than any other. It is one of four consultancies in OpenAI’s Frontier Alliances, alongside Accenture, McKinsey and BCG.

Nine universities are also under investigation.

Harvard, Yale and Stanford are among them, accused of bringing in international students to undercut American wages. Subpoenas have already been served there too.

Capgemini spends a good deal of time telling European companies to measure exactly this kind of exposure.

Its research institute found last month that 86% of large organisations have significant exposure to foreign or externally controlled supply chains, and that 36% would need more than a year to leave a critical provider. Its own American green card pipeline has now been suspended with no published end date.