Eight Tech Firms, Microsoft and Infosys Among Them, Are Suspended From Permanent Hiring via a Visa Pathway
New and pending applications under the Permanent Labor Certification Program, or PERM, have been frozen, and the BBC reports the freeze is a big blow to Indians, who hold a majority of H-1B visas. That temporary visa for specialists is what they use to work in the US while relying on PERM to reach a green card and, ultimately, citizenship.
The BBC also reports that recent policy moves have deepened uncertainty and amplified online hostility towards Indian immigrants and H-1B visa holders.
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The ledger that matters here is not a revenue line. A senior executive at one of the eight firms told the BBC anonymously that the restriction will not break the business, but that its impact is more intense at a human level.
Narrowed rather than sealed, though: people with exceptional accomplishments, or whose work advances US national interests, may be eligible for categories that bypass PERM labour certification — and Gulek warns some of those categories may be targeted next.