In a blow to Indian IT majors, the United States on Thursday suspended several companies from the Permanent Labour Certification Programme, which lets firms apply for green cards for H-1B visa workers, arguing that the practice takes away jobs from Americans. The affected companies include Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, and HCL.
US Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling announced the move. He was flanked by US Vice President JD Vance.
US Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling announced the move, which also impacts Western behemoths like Capgemini, Microsoft and Adobe. He was flanked by the head of the US Anti-Fraud Task Force and Vice President JD Vance. The programme allows employers to sponsor foreign workers for permanent employment and residency.
“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. He said the US government will not accept “any new or process” any pending permanent labour certification applications involving these companies. “Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers in 2025 after certifying that it could not find qualified American employees – yet the company was approved for more than 6,000 H-1Bs and filed 3,682 PERM applications, including nearly 1,000 applications for the same positions as the laid-off American workers,” the vice president said.
