Green Card Overhaul: Major PERM Change Clears White House

Proposed PERM Hiring Rule Changes

The White House has cleared a proposed overhaul to the PERM employment-based green card program. This comes just weeks after the suspension of PERM programs for major companies like Microsoft.

The PERM program is the first step for most employment-based green cards. In this step, companies must prove that no qualified American worker is available for a particular job.

The Department of Labour (DoL) states that the current rules remain stuck in 2004. They rely on newspaper ads, which do not reflect how companies hire today, through the internet.

The proposed reforms will focus on four major areas. They are the better recruitment of Americans, stronger protections for laid off workers, non-dicriminatory hiring, and proper recordkeeping by employers.

The reform seems to be a direct response to the PERM suspensions a few weeks prior. Officials accused major companies of using green card workers to replace Americans, getting cheap labour.

Now, the administration is looking to go beyond the punishing of individual companies. They are aiming to change the very method by which green cards are granted.

PERM petitions will likely become significantly more difficult to get approved in the future.

The rule will be published for public comment first. However, the path to an employment-based green card already looks to be getting much harder.