Nearly 12 million people globally apply for jobs in USA.
Amidst economic slowdown, tech giants including Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook are laying off employees. The condition is becoming worse for many job seekers as Amazon and Google ask to stop all PERM filings for this year.
PERM is a permanent labour certification issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) in USA. This allows any US-based organisation to hire a foreign employee to work permanently in the USA. This is regarded as the first step of getting a green card, which allows the holder to live and work in the US permanently.
The suspension of new green card applications will cause more difficulties for candidates seeking employment in the US.
In this article, we will discuss if Indian employees are in danger of losing jobs or renewing work permit in the USA.
In January 2023, Google stopped its PERM applications and laid off around 12,000 employees. Amidst rising competition, the situation of foreign workers are becoming dire. As PERM application is asked to stop, foreign candidates will find it extremely hard to stay and work in the USA.
Google wrote to the US government quoting: “We project that our need for AI Engineer roles, including Software Engineer, Research Engineer, and Research Scientist roles, will increase significantly in the coming years. AI advancements offer incredible promise, but the lack of skilled professionals threatens to hinder their full potential.”
Ava Benach, founding partner of Benach Collopy, a leading immigration law firm in Washington DC told: “The tech companies are following in the footsteps of Google due to its outsized influence here. With more US workers available for open positions, the labor market test fails and so the process becomes a waste of time and money for these tech companies.”
“If tech companies have done layoffs relatively recently, they also have to notify laid off workers of new positions that may be going to foreign workers. If some of these people say ‘yes, I’m interested,’ then you're out of luck with the green card application,” she added further.
USA has the highest number of Indian employees with over 4 million people.
“Although they make up about one per cent of American society, they pay about six per cent of the taxes. They're amongst the top producers, and they do not cause problems. They follow the laws,” an US lawmaker praised the Indian-American community in USA.
Meanwhile, Indian Americans are the second-largest immigrant group in the USA.
However, the impact of global economic slowdown has been worse on Indian employees in USA. As per Bloomberg report: “More than 200,000 tech workers have been laid off in the U.S. between November 2022 and January 2023 of whom 30%–40% were Indian IT professionals.”
As per recent reports, over one million Indians are waiting to get green card or permanent residential certificate in USA. Shockingly, many of them are waiting for decades.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has released the Visa Bulletin in April 2024. It showed progress in family-sponsored Green Card applications of Indians.
Generally, USA government receives high demand for visas from China, India, Mexico, and Phillipines.
Believe it or not, Indians may need to face the consequences of global economic slowdown in USA. Employees are worried that they will face difficulty to renew their US work permits as PERM process will not resume until the first quarter of 2025.
