New Delhi: The United States has suspended several major technology and outsourcing companies, including Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro and HCL, from a labour-certification programme central to many employer-sponsored green-card applications. Announced on Thursday, the decision puts an important route to permanent residence on hold for affected foreign professionals, including Indians, without itself cancelling their existing H-1B visas.
The US labour secretary, Keith Sonderling, named Cognizant and Capgemini alongside the Indian IT companies, while also announcing restrictions on Microsoft and Adobe. The action covers applications awaiting a decision as well as fresh submissions, preventing the named employers from advancing cases through this stage of the immigration process.
“We will not accept any new or process any pending permanent labour certification applications involving these companies,” Sonderling said, according to Reuters. Officials presented the suspensions as part of an effort to combat alleged immigration fraud and encourage companies to employ more Americans.
At the White House news conference, the US vice-president, JD Vance, accused Microsoft of using foreign-worker programmes while laying off American employees. He questioned whether recruitment undertaken before sponsoring foreign workers genuinely tested the availability of suitable domestic candidates, alleging that companies were exploiting the system to replace Americans.
Vance said Microsoft had laid off 6,000 American workers while obtaining 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards, according to AP. These were figures and allegations advanced by the administration; Microsoft did not immediately respond to the agency’s request for comment.
The programme at the centre of the action is permanent labour certification, commonly known as PERM. It requires employers, in most cases, to secure US labour department approval before submitting an immigrant petition for a foreign employee to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Under the department’s PERM requirements, an employer must establish that sufficient American workers are not able, willing, qualified and available for the position in the area where the employee would work. The proposed employment must also avoid harming the wages and working conditions of comparable US workers, with a prevailing-wage determination required before filing.
Labour certification therefore serves as a check on the domestic employment market, rather than an award of permanent residence. Obtaining it allows an employer to proceed to the immigration-petition stage; it does not, on its own, give the employee a green card.
What does this mean for Indian professionals?
For Indian professionals, the immediate consequence is a blockage in employer-sponsored settlement plans where the application still requires PERM approval. The effect will vary according to the stage of each case, making the distinction between a pending labour-certification application and a case that has already progressed beyond it particularly significant.
The suspension must also be distinguished from restrictions on temporary employment under H-1B, which permits eligible foreign professionals to work in specialized occupations. That programme uses a separate labour condition application, followed by an employer petition to USCIS, whereas PERM concerns certification for permanent employment.
Consequently, the announcement does not amount to a blanket withdrawal of H-1B status from employees of the affected companies. It nevertheless creates a longer-term concern for some workers because progress towards permanent residence can influence their eligibility to remain beyond the normal H-1B limit.
The US state department’s guidance explains that most H-1B workers face a six-year maximum, although qualifying cases can receive extensions. One provision permits extensions in one-year increments when at least 365 days have elapsed since a labour-certification application or immigrant petition was filed, meaning obstacles to timely filing can have consequences beyond the green-card timetable.
The latest announcement broadens restrictions that had already reached Cognizant and Cloudera in September, when their PERM filings were suspended amid investigations. It places more large employers under scrutiny, extending uncertainty across a substantial part of the technology-services industry.
The duration of the new suspensions and their full implications for employees whose cases have progressed to later stages remained unclear in the initial reporting. For affected workers and employers, those unresolved questions will determine whether the interruption becomes a temporary processing delay or a more lasting obstacle to permanent residence.