Washington: In a big blow to some of the top Indian IT companies, the Donald Trump administration on Thursday suspended several major firms from the PERM labour certification programme, a key step for employers seeking permanent residency for foreign workers, including those on H1B visas.
The affected companies include Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Cognizant.
The decision, announced by US Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling, also impacts Microsoft, Capgemini and Adobe.
“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, flanked by the head of US Anti-Fraud Task Force and Vice-President JD Vance.
Sonderling said the US government won’t accept “any new or process” any pending permanent labour certification applications involving these companies.
“Since 2009, just these companies alone have requested almost three million foreign workers. They’ve received over 230,000 H-1B visa approvals and over 100,000 permanent labour certifications,” Sonderling informed, accusing these companies of taking away hundreds of thousands of jobs from American workers.
Vance slammed Microsoft, describing it as a company that abused the system the most.
“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.
The US decision is likely to create uncertainty for Indian IT professionals around future employer-sponsored Green Card applications.
However, suspension of new PERM filings does not automatically cancel existing approved Green Card cases, according to officials.