The United States has suspended eight of the world's biggest technology companies — including TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, Microsoft and Adobe — from the PERM green card programme, escalating the Trump administration's crackdown on employment-based immigration.
What the Suspension Does
The action was announced on Thursday, October 8, by US Vice President JD Vance and Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling at a White House press conference of the administration's anti-fraud task force, also attended by Attorney General Todd Blanche. "I am hereby suspending from the Permanent Labour Certification Programme some of the largest IT outsourcing firms in the world — Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini," Sonderling said.
Microsoft and Adobe were suspended too, with the Department of Labor citing multiple active federal investigations. The department said it would "not accept any new or process any pending permanent labour certification applications" involving the companies. PERM is administered by the Department of Labor and is generally a required step before an employer can sponsor a foreign worker for most employment-based green cards — the employer must show no qualified US workers are available for the job.
The Administration's Case
Sonderling said the eight companies had collectively requested "almost three million foreign workers" since 2009, receiving more than 230,000 H-1B visa approvals and over 100,000 permanent labour certifications. "That's hundreds of thousands of jobs that were taken from American workers," he said.
Vance singled out Microsoft, saying the company laid off 6,000 American workers in 2025 while securing 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards. "For every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants," Vance said, accusing the H-1B programme of becoming "rife with fraud." He added: "Our message to Microsoft is: you're a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers."
What It Does Not Do — and the Companies' Response
The suspension does not cancel existing H-1B visas or green cards held by employees of these firms; it blocks the companies from using the PERM route for new or pending employment-based green card cases, which could delay long-term immigration plans for foreign professionals, many of them Indian technology workers.
Some companies say the practical impact will be limited. TCS told stock exchanges its PERM applications had fallen to "single digits" over the past two years and that it does not expect the suspension to affect its workforce strategy, noting a US strategy anchored in local hiring and a plan to hire 15,000 more people in the US over five years. Microsoft said most of its recent H-1B filings were for employees already on its rolls. Industry body Nasscom said Indian tech companies have "significantly reduced their dependence on H-1B visas" while expanding local hiring in the US.
Why It Matters
The move is the sharpest escalation yet in Washington's scrutiny of skilled-worker immigration, coming weeks after a one-time $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions that was blocked by federal court orders. With Meta, Amazon and Google still free to use PERM, the industry — and thousands of workers in the green card queue — will be watching whether the suspension widens or stands.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Long Road Ahead B (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0