"HR says the company is still doing PERM (the labor certification, the first step toward an employment-based green card). Is that true?" A post on a Chinese-language immigration forum asked this on September 14. In three days it drew 5,900 views and 27 replies. The most-liked reply was just four words: support doesn't mean approval.
This article breaks the 2026 PERM path into its three parts for you: whether your company will file, whether DOL will approve, and how long it takes. Each part has its own sticking points, and lumping them together is where claims like "big tech has paused PERM" come from.
The bottom line: most big tech companies have not formally stopped PERM, but they pause for six months after layoffs. What actually trips people up is the labor market test, which means showing the employer can't find a US worker for the job. So many people apply for jobs now that big companies have a hard time passing this step. From your start date to having an I-140 (the immigrant petition your employer files with USCIS on your behalf), it realistically takes two to three and a half years. If you only have three or four years left on your H-1B, do the math with that timeline.
What PERM is, and where it gets stuck
PERM stands for Program Electronic Review Management. It is the first step for employment-based EB-2 (second preference, advanced-degree professionals) and EB-3 (third preference, skilled workers). The employer has to prove to DOL that it recruited for the position at the market wage and could not find a qualified US worker, which is why it needs to sponsor a foreign worker for a green card.
The legal basis is Section 212(a)(5)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act: DOL must determine that "there are not sufficient workers who are able, willing, qualified ... and available" and that employing the foreign worker "will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the United States similarly employed."
The process has three stages, and any of them can get stuck:
- The company decides whether to file. This is company policy, not law.
- Recruitment and the labor market test. The employer advertises the job according to DOL rules and sees whether any qualified US workers apply. This is set by the regulation at 20 CFR 656.17.
- DOL review. After filing, the case waits in line for an analyst, and it may be selected for audit.
Most of the arguments on the forum are about the second stage.
Are companies still filing or not?
Piecing together what people said in the thread:
- Meta: HR says it's filing; employees say "you can file, but the approval rate is extremely low." One former employee said "you can do PERM and NIW (National Interest Waiver), and neither gets approved." Someone else said an E5-level person on their team got approved and has already filed the 485.
- Google: Replies said HR will always say it supports PERM, and can even start it on your first day.
- Amazon: A reply said software engineers got an email last month saying PERM won't be revisited until January next year at the earliest.
- Uber: Another thread said that after layoffs, the law firm announced a six-month pause, with PERM to be reconsidered in spring 2027.
These are all secondhand accounts from individual employees, and we cannot verify them with the companies. But they point to the same pattern, and that pattern has a regulatory basis: for six months after layoffs, PERM is basically off the table. 20 CFR 656.17(k) provides that if an employer had layoffs in the same area and the same or a related occupation within 6 months before filing, it must show that it notified and considered every potentially qualified laid-off US worker. After a round of layoffs, big tech legal departments usually just pause PERM for six months and wait for the window to pass. One reply put it bluntly: "With how often my company does layoffs, we pause for six months every year."
So the answer to "is the company still filing?" depends on when its most recent layoff was.
Why is the labor market test so hard to pass?
For professional positions, the regulation requires at least the following recruitment: a job order with the state workforce agency for 30 days, newspaper ads on two Sundays, plus three additional recruitment steps (chosen from the company website, job search websites, campus recruiting and so on). All of this must be done within 30 to 180 days before filing.
The rules haven't changed; the market has. Two replies in the thread hit the nail on the head:
- "Too many people apply to the job ads that go out. It's really hard to pass."
- "AI résumés are everywhere now. Everyone uses bots to apply, and lots of résumés claim to be good at everything. No job requirement can screen people out."
The logic of the labor market test is "we advertised and no qualified US worker applied." The reality in 2026 is that any big tech job ad gets a flood of applications, and some of those applicants will meet the minimum requirements written in the ad. As soon as one qualified US worker shows up, the PERM for that position can't be approved; the employer either makes that person an offer or gives up.
Is it easier at a higher level? The thread was split. One side said senior roles have higher requirements, so fewer US workers qualify. The other side said even senior Meta job ads list minimum requirements of only about six years of experience, which doesn't screen anyone out. Both sides are going on experience, not data. What we can say for sure: the higher the minimum requirements, the more likely DOL is to question whether the requirements were tailored to the foreign worker. That falls under 656.17(h), so employers won't keep raising the bar indefinitely.
One more thing nobody in the thread mentioned but you should know: DOL has sent a proposed rule titled "Modernizing the Labor Market Test and Improving Protections for U.S. Workers in the PERM Immigrant Visa Program" to the White House for review, under RIN 1205-AC29. The text of the rule has not been released, so we won't describe what it would change. All we can say is that the rules for this path are themselves in the process of changing.
One email each month when the bulletin lands, with what changed for EB-3. Unsubscribe anytime.
How long does it take?
The numbers from DOL's processing times page (as of August 31, 2026):
| Stage | Now processing | Average days |
|---|---|---|
| Prevailing wage determination (PWD) | Filed in May 2026 | About 3 to 4 months |
| PERM analyst review | Filed in November 2025 | 336 days |
| PERM audit review | Filed in December 2025 | No data |
Put it together: the company starts the process after you join, the wage determination takes three or four months, recruitment takes two or three months, DOL review takes 11 months, and only after approval is the I-140 filed. To run through it with your own dates, you can use our PERM timeline tool. The original poster's own estimate was "realistically 2.5 to 3.5 years from joining to a new I-140," which lines up with the official numbers. One reply added that big law firms are slow: "expect another year on top of that."
If you have three or four years left on your H-1B, this is the math you need to do: by the time PERM is done, your H-1B will be nearly used up, and any layoff along the way resets the clock by six months.
Which forum claims hold up
"Big tech has paused PERM." Not accurate. Mostly it's a six-month pause after layoffs as the regulation requires, not a permanent stop. But the six-month pause itself is real, and it happens again and again.
"If HR says they support it, you're fine." A reply in the thread with 12 likes: "Most HR people know nothing about immigration." HR can tell you company policy; it can't tell you about the labor market test. The people to ask are the company's immigration lawyers or coworkers who just went through it.
"Supporting it, starting it and getting it approved are three different things." This was the most accurate summary in the thread, with 8 likes.
"Just wait for the next administration." That's a political prediction, and we won't comment. On the rules side, PERM's recruitment requirements haven't changed much in twenty years; what's blocking people is the market, not policy.
What you can do now
- When you interview at a big tech company, don't ask "do you do PERM?" Ask three specific questions: when was the most recent layoff; has anyone on this team had a PERM approved in the past year; and which law firm do you use, and how long does it take on average from start to filing.
- Treat PERM as one of several parallel paths, not your only one. EB-1A (extraordinary ability), EB-1B (outstanding professors and researchers) and NIW do not require a labor market test. The former Meta employee in the thread put it as "you can do PERM and NIW," which suggests that at the company level these paths sit side by side.
- Measure the time left on your H-1B against PERM's real timeline. The H-1B six-year limit calculator can show how much you have left. If you have three and a half years or less, your status will most likely run out before PERM is done, so work out in advance what you'll base an extension on.
- After PERM and the I-140, there's still the visa bulletin wait. For where EB-2 and EB-3 China mainland stand now and how much they've moved in past Octobers, see Why the October Visa Bulletin Still Isn't Out; for what happens after you file your I-485, see After Filing Your 485.
Sources: Immigration and Nationality Act Section 212(a)(5)(A); 20 CFR 656.17 (recruitment requirements, layoff provision, minimum requirements); DOL FLAG processing times (as of August 31, 2026); proposed rule RIN 1205-AC29 under review at the White House OIRA; a September 14, 2026 thread and replies on a Chinese-language immigration forum. Forum content consists of personal experiences and secondhand accounts, and we cannot verify each company's policy.
Email alerts when your case status changes (in development)
We're building receipt-number tracking with automatic alerts and typical processing times. Join the waitlist to be first. This also subscribes you to the monthly bulletin email; unsubscribe anytime.