Trump’s DOJ gains oversight of OpenAI’s green-card employee sponsorships
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- OpenAI and its once-subsidiary Statsig signed a DOJ settlement announced Wednesday requiring three years of federal oversight over their hiring practices for roles tied to permanent residence (PERM) sponsorship
- The DOJ's Civil Rights Division alleged the companies violated the Immigration and Nationality Act by not genuinely recruiting U.S. citizens before pursuing green-card applications, citing tactics like advertising on radio late at night, requiring paper applications, and not listing roles on public job boards
- OpenAI and Statsig agreed to pay $3.2 million total — a $1.2 million fine plus $2 million set aside as restitution for any harmed U.S. applicants — without admitting wrongdoing
- Fewer than 10 roles triggered the investigation, but the settlement requires both companies to draft DOJ-approved hiring policies and submit semi-annual reports detailing how many foreign-worker applications they pursued and how many U.S. citizens they interviewed
- The DOJ investigation of both companies began in August 2025, before OpenAI acquired Statsig in September 2025 (and later partially divested it in May 2026); the probe covered five OpenAI PERM cases spanning 2023 to 2025
- The DOJ framed the settlement as part of an increased crackdown, but similar INA-violation settlements were reached with Facebook and Apple during the Biden administration — though those cases alleged widespread and systematic violations rather than fewer than 10 roles
Why it matters: The DOJ now has three years of direct visibility into OpenAI's permanent-residence hiring pipeline, with semi-annual reporting requirements on U.S.-citizen recruitment versus foreign sponsorship. Though fewer than 10 roles triggered the probe, the settlement extends the same INA-enforcement template previously applied to Facebook and Apple — signaling that tech employers sponsoring green-card workers face escalating compliance scrutiny regardless of which party holds the White House.
