WASHINGTON — A Department of Labor (DOL) proposal to modernize the process for sponsoring foreign workers for green cards has been approved by a key White House office, Bloomberg Tax reported on October 26. The DOL plan, RIN 1205-AC29, to update the permanent labor certification process known as PERM cleared Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs review on October 23 — a step that signals public release of the proposal could come soon.
Source: Bloomberg Tax
PERM is the labour-certification stage of the employment-based green card process: in most EB-2 and EB-3 cases an employer must first obtain an approved PERM from the Labor Department before filing the immigrant petition. The proposal would mark the first comprehensive update to the PERM regulations since 2004, and it is expected to move next to publication in the Federal Register, where it will be open to a 30- or 60-day public comment period before the department decides whether to finalize it, according to an October 26 news alert from Envoy Global.
Source: Envoy Global
The full text is not yet public. According to the Labor Department, as summarized by Envoy Global, the proposal would modernize the labour market test used in PERM cases and strengthen safeguards for U.S. workers while updating employer compliance requirements. The department has indicated it may revise the minimum standards for recruiting qualified U.S. workers, strengthen requirements around layoffs affecting U.S. workers, enhance non-discrimination compliance in recruitment and hiring, update record-retention obligations, and modernize recruitment procedures to reflect current technology and labour market practices. The contents of the rule remain confidential until Federal Register publication.
Source: Envoy Global
The rulemaking is advancing amid a broader Trump administration enforcement crackdown targeting the PERM program, Bloomberg Tax noted — including suspensions for Microsoft Corp. and other tech employers, under which the department said it would stop accepting and processing PERM cases for the named companies. The two tracks are separate: the suspensions are an enforcement step against specific employers, while the cleared proposal would rewrite the rules for the program as a whole.
Source: Bloomberg Tax
Nothing changes for applicants today: no new PERM rule is in force, and no filing requirement has changed yet. For the Punjabi and wider Indian diaspora in the United States — among the largest groups in the employment-based green card queue — the practical step is to watch for the Federal Register publication, when the actual proposed text, and the comment window, will be public for the first time. This report is general information, not legal advice; workers with a pending or planned PERM case should follow the published proposal and their own counsel.