It has been found that the number of applications submitted by information technology companies in the United States for foreign workers to obtain a ‘green card’ for permanent residency has sharply declined this year.
In this context, company executives there said that the recent action taken by the U.S. Department of Labor to suspend these companies from the Permanent Labor Certification Program (PERM) would not have a significant impact on the ongoing operations of these information technology companies.
In the United States, the Department of Labor last Thursday ordered the suspension of eight companies, including leading Indian IT firms TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and HCL, as well as prominent U.S. companies Microsoft, Cognizant, Capgemini, and Adobe, from the permanent labor certification program, accusing them of irregularities in the program.
This action was taken by the United States based on an investigation conducted following complaints that, instead of hiring Americans, these companies had been hiring foreign workers at lower wages through this certification program.
Through the labor certification program, this suspension measure was taken to prevent foreign workers employed at those companies from applying for permanent residency (green cards) in the United States. Because of this action, the review of green card applications filed on behalf of these companies and currently pending will also be put on hold. As a result, it is said that legal complications and costs will increase for Indian information technology companies.
In an interview on this, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance criticized these companies, saying, “These companies are hiring foreign workers like bonded laborers instead of American workers.” India strongly condemned his remarks.
Application decline: Even before the U.S. Department of Labor’s action against information technology companies, it has come to light that these companies have sharply reduced the submission of permanent labor certification “PERM” applications for foreign employees.
According to the research data released in this regard, TCS submitted 1,804 PERM applications in 2024 and 513 applications in 2025, but in 2026 it has submitted only 2 PERM applications.
HCL submitted 1,804 PERM applications in 2025 and 59 applications in 2026.
Wipro submitted 257 applications in 2024 and 523 applications in 2025.
Infosys submitted only 87 applications in 2024. There is no application data for these companies for 2025 and 2026.
Regarding this, former HCL chairman Vineet Nayar said, ‘Of the 1,17,849 PERM applications filed last year, only 1,400 were filed by Indian information technology companies. That is less than 2 percent. Therefore, the action by the US Department of Labor will not have any significant impact on the operations of Indian IT companies,’ he said.
