OpenAI, the California company behind ChatGPT, has settled a U.S. government complaint that it discriminated against American workers. The Justice Department accused OpenAI OpCo LLC and a subsidiary of breaching the Immigration and Nationality Act, a federal law that covers hiring.
The case is about a program called Permanent Labor Certification, or PERM, which is the step where a company has to show the government it tried to find a qualified U.S. worker before hiring a foreign worker permanently. The DOJ alleged that, under that federal scheme, OpenAI gave candidates on temporary visas a preference even though U.S. workers are supposed to have priority.
That rule matters because the whole point of PERM is to protect U.S. jobs. Employers cannot simply decide they would rather bring in someone from abroad, and they are supposed to prove a U.S. worker was not available or qualified before the government backs a green card request.
To close this out, OpenAI is paying real money and accepting new rules.
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Workers who think they were affected can file a claim for a share of the compensation fund until August 4, 2026. The $2 million fund is separate from the $1.2 million penalty, which goes to the government.
The settlement also forces changes to how OpenAI handles future hires. OpenAI has to advertise job openings tied to PERM positions on the official PERM website and accept applications electronically.
The company also has to rework its training materials and employment policies, and it will be under ongoing oversight and reporting requirements. Those changes matter because they remove some of the quiet ways companies can steer jobs toward visa holders.
Posting openings where the government can see them and letting people apply online gives U.S. workers a real chance to be in the applicant pool, and the oversight and reporting piece is not just paperwork either. It gives the government a way to check that OpenAI actually follows through.
Harmeet Dhillon, head of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, said the settlement "ensures that OpenAI redresses harm and changes its recruitment practices so that US workers receive a fair opportunity for highly sought-after technology positions."
This is not an isolated case. The Justice Department said this is the thirteenth such settlement in its enforcement of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and that pattern suggests the government sees a problem that goes beyond one company.
PERM is the route many employers use when they want to sponsor a foreign worker for a green card. The government's role is to check whether the employer genuinely looked for a qualified U.S. worker first. When a company files for PERM, those recruitment steps have to be documented, and this is where the government can catch a process tilted toward visa holders. This settlement puts OpenAI under those rules with added monitoring, but the same basic obligation applies to any employer using the program.
OpenAI does not agree with the findings. A spokesperson said the company's mission requires attracting and keeping top talent in the U.S. and worldwide, and that OpenAI settled so it could move its PERM program forward.
That push-and-pull is the heart of the issue. AI companies say they need to hire the brightest people wherever they are, and U.S. immigration law does allow foreign hires. But the law also says American workers get the first look in a program like PERM. When a company runs that process in a way that skips past U.S. applicants, the government has the power to step in.
For most people, this case is not about getting a job at OpenAI. It is about whether the hiring rules that millions of workers rely on are actually being followed. If you ever apply for a job at a company that uses PERM, the government just made it clear what the rules are: give U.S. workers a fair look before looking overseas.
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