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The First Major PERM Overhaul in Two Decades: What It Means for Indian Green Card Applicants
The system that underpins most employer-sponsored green cards in the United States has not been substantially rewritten since George W. Bush's first term. That is now poised to change. On September 16, 2026, Business Standard reported that the U.S. Department of Labor has moved ahead with plans to overhaul the PERM labour certification process. This, in turn, is likely to potentially bring the most significant changes to the employer-sponsored green card system in more than two decades. As always our EB-1A consultants have presented a detailed breakdown on the changes in PERM rule and what it could mean for the green card aspirants.
Where things currently stand
The proposed regulation, titled "Modernizing the Labor Market Test and Improving Protections for U.S. Workers in the PERM Immigrant Visa Program," entered review at the White House's Office of Management and Budget on September 14, 2026, according to the U.S. government's regulatory database. Immigration law firm Fragomen confirmed on September 15 that the DOL had begun the formal process of proposing the new regulation, while cautioning that the substance "will remain confidential until the proposal is published in the Federal Register."
Fragomen separately noted that DOL based its proposal in part on a series of listening sessions held over the past two years with employers and other business immigration stakeholders. In other words, the eventual rule, whatever its final form, has been in development well before this month's procedural milestone.
DiRaimondo & Schroeder, a U.S. business immigration law firm, stressed that current PERM regulations remain fully in force until a final rule actually takes effect. Murthy Law Firm echoed that caution directly: "The regulatory agenda reflects only the DOL's intention to publish a proposed rule. Once the NPRM is issued, it will be published in the Federal Register and will include the proposed regulatory text along with a public comment period. After reviewing public comments, the DOL may revise the proposal before issuing a final rule. Accordingly, no changes to the PERM process have taken effect, and employers should continue following the current regulations until any final rule becomes effective."
What PERM is, and why it matters to Indian professionals
PERM, short for Program Electronic Review Management, is the labour certification process most U.S. employers must complete before sponsoring a foreign worker for permanent residence in the EB-2 and EB-3 employment-based green card categories. Its basic purpose is twofold: to establish that the employer has genuinely tested the U.S. labour market and found no able, willing, qualified, and available American workers for the role. Secondly, it also ensures that the foreign hire doesn't undercut the wages or working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.
EB-2 and EB-3 green cards commonly rely on the PERM labour certification route, and Indian nationals make up a large share of applicants in both categories. This is precisely why any changes in the PERM guideline is going to directly impact the Indian applicants.
What the DOL is actually proposing to change
According to DOL's own regulatory agenda, the proposed rule is expected to focus on four areas.
- Firstly, minimum recruitment standards: revising the standards employers must meet when advertising for and recruiting qualified U.S. workers.
- Second, layoffs: strengthening protections and rules relating to U.S. workers affected by recent workforce reductions.
- Third, non-discrimination: reinforcing employer compliance with anti-discrimination requirements in recruitment and hiring.
- And fourth, record-keeping: addressing employer documentation and record-retention obligations.
Most importantly, DOL has not yet released the actual regulatory text, so it remains too early to speculate how exactly the final form is going to look.
Why now? A system stuck in 2004
The DOL's own regulatory agenda states plainly that the existing PERM framework has not been comprehensively revised since 2004. Boundless Immigration observed that the current system still contains recruitment methods designed for an era in which newspaper advertising and similarly traditional channels played a far larger role than they do today.
Murthy Law Firm framed the stakes of that gap succinctly: "The PERM program serves as the first step for most employer-sponsored permanent residence cases. Although the underlying regulations have remained largely unchanged for over 20 years, employers and practitioners have seen significant changes in recruiting practices, technology, and workforce dynamics." The firm added that a modernization effort could produce meaningful changes across recruitment methods and timing, documentation requirements, layoff analyses, audit standards, employer compliance obligations, and overall PERM adjudication practices.
What this means and doesn't mean for individual workers
For employees hoping to understand their own exposure, the most important distinction is that the proposed changes are aimed primarily at the employer's side of the PERM process. Workers do not personally conduct the labour-market test; it is the employer's responsibility to demonstrate DOL compliance before a PERM application can be certified. That said, if the eventual rules require more extensive recruitment or documentation, it could reshape how companies prepare and manage PERM cases going forward. This will indirectly affect processing timelines and requirements for the workers those cases involve.
The proposal may carry particular relevance for workers whose employers have recently gone through layoffs. Fragomen noted the DOL proposal would strengthen rules concerning U.S. worker layoffs and recruitment specifically, while DiRaimondo & Schroeder advised that employers with recent workforce reductions should pay especially close attention to this development.
There is, notably, no announced requirement that existing PERM cases would need to restart under any future rule.
Not the same as the visa backlog
It is however worth drawing a clear line between this PERM proposal and the separate issue of visa-number backlogs tracked through the monthly Visa Bulletin. PERM is only one stage of the broader employer-sponsored green card process. After labour certification, the employer generally proceeds with the immigrant petition. Depending on visa-number availability, the later stages of permanent residence processing usually unfold. Changes to PERM recruitment requirements could alter how an employer initiates or manages the labour-certification stage, but they do not, by themselves, resolve the separate visa-number backlogs that continue to determine actual wait times for many applicants.
What happens next
The immediate next step is completion of the OMB review. Once that review clears, DOL is expected to publish the proposal in the Federal Register, and open a public comment period that Fragomen said could run either 30 or 60 days. Only after DOL reviews those comments, and potentially revises the proposal in response, would a final rule be issued with its own implementation date. Until that entire process concludes, immigration attorneys are unanimous: employers and workers alike should continue operating under the current PERM regulations exactly as they exist today.
At GCEB1, our EB-1A experts are closely tracking all the developments and the future shape of the PERM guideline. Stay tuned to us and read all the latest insights and analysis in the U.S. immigration landscape. We wish you a safe and stress free immigration journey.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Has the PERM process actually changed yet?
No. As of now, the proposal is only under review at the Office of Management and Budget; current PERM regulations remain fully in force, and attorneys advise continuing to file under existing rules.
2. What is PERM, and why does it matter for green card applicants?
PERM is the labour certification process most employers must complete before sponsoring a foreign worker for an EB-2 or EB-3 employment-based green card, confirming no qualified U.S. workers are available and that the hire won't undercut American wages.
3. When did this proposed rule enter federal review?
It entered Office of Management and Budget review on September 14, 2026, according to the U.S. government's regulatory database.
4. Why has DOL not released the actual text of the proposed rule?
The proposal remains confidential during OMB review and will only become public once it is formally published in the Federal Register.
5. Why is PERM being overhauled now?
The existing framework hasn't been comprehensively revised since 2004, and DOL has cited major shifts in recruitment technology and labour market practices, such as the rise of digital job boards and applicant-tracking systems, as reasons for modernization.
6. What are the four main areas the proposed rule is expected to address?
Minimum recruitment standards, protections related to layoffs of U.S. workers, non-discrimination compliance in recruitment and hiring, and employer record-keeping requirements.
7. Will workers with pending PERM applications need to restart their cases?
There is no announced requirement to do so. Questions about effective dates, transition rules, and whether pending cases would be grandfathered cannot be answered until the proposed regulation, and eventually the final rule, are published.
8. Is this the same as the employment-based visa backlog?
No. PERM is only the labour-certification stage of the green card process; it is separate from the visa-number backlog and Visa Bulletin wait times that affect later stages of permanent residence processing.
9. What is the next procedural step, and how long could it take?
Once OMB review concludes, DOL is expected to publish the proposal in the Federal Register, opening a public comment period of either 30 or 60 days, after which DOL may revise the proposal before issuing a final rule with its own implementation date.
Sources & further readings
- Business Standard. “US to Overhaul PERM Green Card Process: What Indian Workers Need to Know.” Business Standard, September 16, 2026. https://www.business-standard.com/immigration/us-to-overhaul-perm-green-card-process-what-indian-workers-need-to-know-126091600700_1.html
- Boundless Immigration. “DOL Plans Major Update to PERM Labor Certification Process.” July 9, 2026. https://www.boundless.com/blog/dol-plans-major-perm-labor-certification-update
- DiRaimondo & Schroeder LLP. Sarah Schroeder. “DOL Plans Major Modernization of PERM Labor Certification Program.” August 18, 2026. https://www.diraimondoschroeder.com/updates/2026/8/18/dol-plans-major-modernization-of-perm-labor-certification-program
- Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy LLP. “United States: Immigration Agencies Unveil Regulatory Agendas for the Coming Months.” July 6, 2026. https://www.fragomen.com/insights/united-states-immigration-agencies-unveil-regulatory-agendas-for-the-coming-months.html
- Murthy Law Firm. Kiersten Snyder. “DOL Signals Major Modernization of PERM Program Through New Proposed Rulemaking.” July 15, 2026. https://www.murthy.com/2026/07/15/dol-signals-major-modernization-of-perm-program-through-new-proposed-rulemaking/
- Reddy Neumann Brown PC. “DOL Signals Planned Changes to the PERM Labor Certification Program: What Employers Should Expect.” July 7, 2026. https://www.rnlawgroup.com/5564-2/
- U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. “Foreign Labor Certification.” Accessed September 16, 2026. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/foreign-labor
- U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. “Permanent Labor Certification (PERM).” FLAG. Accessed September 16, 2026. https://flag.dol.gov/programs/perm
