The United States has frozen a key step in the green card process for eight of the world’s biggest technology employers, and African professionals who hope to settle in the US through a tech job need to understand exactly what has and has not stopped. On October 8, Vice President JD Vance, Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling and other officials announced that the Department of Labor will stop accepting new applications, and stop processing pending ones, under the Permanent Labor Certification Program, known as PERM, for Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini. PERM is generally an employer’s first step in sponsoring a foreign worker for an employment-based green card. A headline saying these companies have “lost the ability to sponsor” workers overstates it. The pause covers the Labor Department’s step, not workers’ current visas, and officials say it will last “as long as it needs to,” with no end date given.
The reasons offered are political and legal claims that have not been tested. Vance said the programme “has become rife with fraud,” argued that Microsoft laid off about 6,000 American workers last year while receiving about 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards, and said such firms replace US workers with cheaper foreign staff. Sonderling said the eight companies have requested almost 3 million foreign workers since 2009, received more than 230,000 H-1B visas and obtained more than 100,000 permanent labor certifications. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department is investigating, with possible criminal and civil consequences. None of the reports we reviewed describes a specific finding of fraud against any of the eight companies, and law firm analysis stresses that these are allegations, not findings. Microsoft disputes the criticism, saying about 80% of its roughly 6,000 H-1B filings last year were to extend or change the status of existing employees and that it pays H-1B workers equally for similar work. No response was reported from Adobe or the six outsourcing firms, and TCS declined to comment.
What the freeze does not do matters as much as what it does. Current H-1B status, work authorisation and existing green cards are not cancelled. Law-firm summaries say the likely legal basis is a Labor Department rule, 20 CFR 656.31, under which an initial suspension can last up to 180 days and can be extended while an investigation is unresolved, and that debarment of up to three years is possible, though none has been announced. No written notice had been posted when those summaries were published, so the exact terms are still unknown. The practical risk falls on workers who need a PERM case filed or completed, for example to stay in the US past the six-year H-1B limit. An I-140 petition approved at least 180 days earlier usually keeps its priority date, and some self-filed routes such as EB-1A and National Interest Waiver do not need PERM, though they need strong evidence and still depend on the visa bulletin. How pending cases, spouses and already-approved certifications are treated has not been answered publicly. Workers should confirm their case stage with an immigration attorney and not rely on this summary, which is not legal advice.
Where do Africans fit? The honest answer is that nobody has published a count of African employees at these eight firms, and none of the major reports on the freeze describes an African effect. The people most exposed are Indian nationals, who hold roughly 70% of H-1B visas and about 79% of the roughly 1.25 million people in the employment-based green card backlog, according to Al Jazeera, and India’s foreign ministry has called Vance’s language offensive. For scale, US State Department data compiled by Intelpoint show Africa received about 1.5% of H-1B visas issued in fiscal year 2024: Nigeria 880, Ghana 499, Egypt 364, Kenya 320, South Africa 208, Zimbabwe 132 and Morocco 78. Those are visas issued abroad, so they likely miss Africans who switched to H-1B status from student status inside the US, which is a reasoned caveat and not a published count. Africans at the named firms are probably a small group, but they are real people with real deadlines, and Africa-based staff of these companies are not directly touched, since PERM concerns green cards, not jobs.
The larger story for Africa is that this freeze lands on top of other restrictions. Since January 21, the US has paused immigrant visa issuance for nationals of 75 countries, 26 of them African, including Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Egypt, Morocco, Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania, according to HapaKenya, and that pause includes employment-based green cards processed at consulates abroad. Nigeria has also faced partial restrictions since December 2025 on B, F, M and J visas, per Intelpoint. On September 18, the White House extended the $100,000 payment requirement for certain H-1B workers entering from abroad through September 21, 2027, although courts have split on it, and issued an executive order telling agencies to weigh employers’ recent layoffs when reviewing H-1B filings. Officials also announced investigations of nine universities over their use of J-1 exchange-visitor visas. Reports say nothing announced so far changes current J-1 holders’ status, but African researchers and exchange participants will want to watch it.
For African professionals and the employers who hire them, the sensible response is to plan for a longer, more expensive and less certain route to the US. Anyone with a green card case at one of the eight firms should ask their employer’s immigration team for the exact status of their file, and anyone considering a move should avoid assuming a US employer will sponsor them. For governments and universities across Africa, the news strengthens the case for building local jobs and for diaspora links that do not depend on a US visa. The unknowns that will settle how much this matters are specific: how long the freeze lasts, whether other employers are added, how already-approved certifications are handled, and whether any company is ever charged. Until then, treat official claims about fraud as claims, and treat the practical risk as real for the workers caught in the queue.
Sources: Insider Wire on the suspensions; KATV/ABC report on the White House announcement; Khaleej Times; Al Jazeera; Wolfsdorf Rosenthal analysis; Ellis George analysis; Immigration Fleet; RN Law Group on the September 18 proclamation and order; Intelpoint on Africa’s H-1B share, FY2024; Intelpoint on US visa restrictions affecting 14 African countries; HapaKenya on the immigrant visa pause.
