Amazon and Google have paused US green card applications for immigrants for the remainder of 2024, amidst recent layoffs by tech giants like Microsoft. This move has intensified competition, making the situation more challenging for foreign workers. The suspension of the green card application process could make it more difficult for overseas candidates, particularly in the tech industry, to reside in the US for work. Both companies have halted the PERM applications until next year.
PERM, overseen by the US Department of Labor, is a process for obtaining permanent labor certification. It ensures that admitting foreign workers does not adversely affect job opportunities, wages, or working conditions for US workers. PERM is often the first step towards obtaining a green card.
Amazon announced internally earlier this year that it would pause all PERM filings through 2024, citing an inability to continue with the process. Google also suspended its PERM applications earlier, in January 2023, and laid off 12,000 employees. The company informed employees that it would not resume the PERM process until the first quarter of 2025.
Ava Benach, founding partner of Benach Collopy, a renowned immigration law firm in Washington DC, told the outlet that tech companies are following Google’s approach because to its “outsized influence here.”
“With more US workers available for open positions, the labor market test fails and so the process becomes a waste of time and money for these tech companies,” Collopy explained.
“If tech companies have done layoffs relatively recently, they also have to notify laid off workers of new positions that may be going to foreign workers. If some of these people say ‘yes, I’m interested,’ then you’re out of luck with the green card application,” she added, per the outlet.
While Amazon and Google have halted PERM applications, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is said to still be sponsoring green cards, albeit at a notably slower pace. According to a current employee, the process now takes “a year or more.”
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