ICE Revised Its I-9 Inspection Fact Sheet Again. Here's What Changed on August 31.
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On October 8, 2026, Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling suspended eight employers from the Permanent Labor Certification Program, known as PERM. Six are IT outsourcing firms (Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies, and Capgemini), and the other two are Microsoft and Adobe, which he said were suspended "due to multiple active federal investigations." He made the announcement on the White House campus alongside Vice President JD Vance, who heads the administration's anti-fraud task force, and Attorney General Todd Blanche. As of this afternoon, DOL hasn't posted a press release or named the regulation it's relying on, and no charges have been announced against any of the eight companies.
No Form I-9 changes because of this, and no H-1B worker at these companies lost work authorization today. PERM is the Department of Labor step that starts most employer-sponsored green cards, and suspending it leaves current H-1B status alone. The I-9 effect comes later and lands on one group first, H-1B workers getting close to the six-year limit whose employer hasn't filed PERM for them yet. The vendor-versus-client I-9 split we laid out in our guide to the September PERM suspension still applies word for word.
"We will not accept any new or process any pending permanent labor certification applications involving these companies," Sonderling said. He backed the decision with a single figure for all eight companies combined: "Since 2009, just these companies alone have requested almost three million foreign workers. They've received over 230,000 H-1B visa approvals and over 100,000 permanent labor certifications. That's hundreds of thousands of jobs that were taken from American workers." Those are DOL's numbers, and the department hasn't published the data behind them.
Vance spent most of his remarks on Microsoft, pointing to its 6,000 layoffs in 2025 and saying the company would be denied PERM "until they show that they are going to get serious about putting American workers first." Microsoft answered the same day that "the vast majority of Microsoft employees in the United States are Americans," and that 80% of the roughly 6,000 H-1B applications it filed last fiscal year were extensions or changes of status for people it already employed.
This is Cognizant's second PERM suspension in a month. DOL Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito announced on September 8 that new PERM filings from Cognizant and Cloudera were suspended, a step out of the H-1B and PERM fraud investigation his office opened in July. Today's action names seven more companies and, by Sonderling's description, reaches pending applications too. Cloudera wasn't mentioned.
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Announced | October 8, 2026, by Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building |
| IT outsourcing firms | Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Capgemini |
| Suspended over active investigations | Microsoft, Adobe |
| Scope | No new PERM applications accepted, and pending applications not processed |
| DOL's figures (since 2009, all eight combined) | Almost 3 million foreign workers requested, 230,000+ H-1B approvals, 100,000+ permanent labor certifications |
| Authority cited | None stated publicly |
| Charges | None announced |
| Duration | Not announced |
Sonderling didn't cite a regulation. The provision in DOL's PERM rules that lets the department hold pending cases is 20 CFR § 656.31(b), which allows DOL to suspend processing of any application involving an employer under investigation by DOJ, DHS, or another agency for possible fraud or willful misrepresentation in the PERM program. A suspension under that rule runs up to 180 days at first, after which DOL's National Certifying Officer can resume some or all of the cases or extend the hold until the investigation and any court case finish. DOL also has to notify the employer in writing unless the investigating agency asks it not to.
| Item | Status after October 8 |
|---|---|
| New PERM applications from the eight companies | Not accepted |
| Pending PERM applications from the eight companies | Not processed |
| Current H-1B status and work authorization | Unchanged |
| H-1B extensions and amendments filed with USCIS | Separate USCIS filings, not part of the announcement |
| PERM cases DOL already certified | Not addressed in the announcement |
| Form I-9 and E-Verify obligations | No change for any employer |
H-1B status generally tops out at six years. Under 8 CFR § 214.2(h)(13)(iii)(D), USCIS can extend a worker past year six in one-year increments once at least 365 days have passed since a labor certification or immigrant petition was filed for them, and the PERM has to have been filed at least 365 days before the extension would start. A worker at one of these eight companies whose PERM hasn't been filed can't start that clock while the suspension lasts. For Indian nationals, who face the longest employment-based green card backlogs, those extensions are often the only thing keeping them employed while they wait.
Workers with an approved I-140 who are stuck behind the per-country limit have a separate extension path under § 214.2(h)(13)(iii)(E) that doesn't need a new PERM. Workers whose PERM was filed more than a year ago have a filing date on the books, and the regulation ends the one-year extensions on a final denial, revocation, or closure of the case. A processing hold isn't any of those, though how USCIS treats a long hold is something immigration counsel will be watching.
An H-1B worker's I-9 carries the expiration date from Section 1 and, usually, the Form I-94 recorded with the foreign passport in Section 2. A timely extension petition gives the worker up to 240 days of continued work authorization while USCIS decides, and you note "240-Day Ext." and the filing date in Section 2 (M-274 §7.5). No extension petition means no bridge, so on the expiration date the worker needs a new document on Supplement B or has to stop working. The offboarding grace period after that is up to 60 days today, and DHS has proposed eliminating it, with comments closing November 10.
The suspension also reaches spouses, since an H-4 spouse can get an EAD only if the H-1B worker has an approved I-140 or is in one of those beyond-six-year AC21 extensions (8 CFR § 214.2(h)(9)(iv)). A frozen PERM pushes that eligibility out for families who haven't qualified yet. H-4 EADs already issued (category C26) run to the date on the card, and you reverify them on that date like any other EAD.
Every H-1B and H-4 EAD expiration date you need is already sitting in your I-9s. Our compliance team can pull those records, sort them by the date on file, and hand you and your immigration counsel a list of who needs an extension filed and when. Schedule a free compliance call, or ask about an I-9 audit if your foreign-national records are spread across more than one system.
Client companies with Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL, Cognizant, or Capgemini consultants on site don't complete I-9s for those consultants. The vendor does, and M-274 §2.0 says so directly. A public investigation of a vendor also isn't knowledge that any specific consultant is unauthorized, so there's no basis to pull badges, ask the vendor for new documents, or run anyone through E-Verify. Doing that selectively by nationality is the kind of thing DOJ's Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) investigates under INA § 274B.
Hiring one of their H-1B workers directly is a normal H-1B transfer. Under M-274 §7.5, the worker can start once you file a new Form I-129, as long as you file before their authorized stay ends, and you complete a new I-9. Their foreign passport plus the unexpired I-94 from the previous employer counts as a List A document, and you write "AC-21" and the I-129 filing date in the Additional Information field. As announced, the suspension covers applications involving the eight named companies, so a PERM you file for that worker yourself isn't caught by it. A PERM their old employer already filed can still count toward the 365-day clock for your extension petition (§ 214.2(h)(13)(iii)(D)(6)), as long as it hasn't been denied or withdrawn.
"Nobody needs a new I-9 because of this announcement. The work is in the expiration dates already on the forms. An H-1B worker in year five with no PERM behind them used to have a plan, and today that plan stopped for anyone at these eight companies. Find those people now, while there's still time to file an extension or plan a transfer, and not on the morning their I-94 runs out," says Patricia Duarte, Director of Compliance at i9 Intelligence.
At the same press conference, Vance named nine universities that DOL's Inspector General is investigating over J-1 exchange-visitor visas. They are Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, the University of Pittsburgh, UC Davis, Caltech, Arizona State, and MIT. "These universities are employing J-1 visas for federally funded grants at a rate of 61 percent. The national average is 38 percent," Vance said, adding that American graduate researchers make "about $20,000 more than someone brought in under a J-1 visa." D'Esposito said subpoenas had been served and investigations were underway. The administration hasn't published the data behind the 61% and 38% figures, and no university has been charged.
The universities complete I-9s for the J-1 researchers they employ, and the investigation doesn't change how. Under M-274 §7.4.1, a J-1 exchange visitor enters the DS-2019 program end date in Section 1 as the date work authorization expires. In Section 2, the List A combination is the foreign passport, a Form I-94 showing J-1 status, and the DS-2019 endorsed by the responsible officer, recorded with the SEVIS number as the document number and the program end date as the expiration date. J-1 students also need a work authorization letter from the responsible officer. The rule underneath all of it is that an employer can't knowingly employ a J-1 participant in work outside their approved program, so university HR teams should make sure each researcher's I-9 matches the program category and end date on their DS-2019.
DOL hasn't said how long the suspension lasts, whether it's using § 656.31(b) and its 180-day review, or whether written notices have gone to the eight companies. Nobody has said which agencies are investigating Microsoft and Adobe or what about, or what the university subpoenas ask for. It's also unclear whether Cloudera's September suspension is still in place, whether USCIS will do anything with already-certified cases from these companies, and whether more employers will be added. The action follows DOL's Project Firewall H-1B enforcement initiative, launched in September 2025, and the inspector general's H-1B and PERM fraud investigation, opened in July 2026. We'll update this page once DOL publishes something in writing.
No. Reverification runs off the expiration date already recorded on the I-9, and a PERM suspension doesn't change that date or the worker's H-1B status. Supplement B comes due when the recorded date arrives, the same as before October 8.
Yes. Their H-1B status is unaffected, and their employer completes and keeps their I-9s. The suspension blocks green-card labor certifications, and it doesn't revoke anyone's permission to work.
As Sonderling described it, the suspension covers PERM applications involving the eight companies. A new employer that isn't on the list files its own H-1B petition and can file its own PERM, and the new employer completes a new I-9 using the AC-21 notation in Section 2.
No. E-Verify runs on new hires, plus some existing employees for federal contractors under FAR 52.222-54. Re-running cases on a group of workers because their employer made the news isn't something E-Verify allows, and it creates a discrimination record.
Without a qualifying PERM or I-140 filed at least 365 days earlier, or an approved I-140 blocked by the per-country limit, USCIS generally can't extend H-1B status past six years. On the I-9 side, the worker has to present a new document on Supplement B by the expiration date on file or stop working, with the post-employment grace period rules applying after that.
Reach the i9 Intelligence compliance team Monday through Friday, 8am to 5pm CT.