US Suspends Green Card Filings for Infosys, TCS, Wipro and Five Others. What It Means for Indian Workers

PERM is the first stage of most employer-sponsored green cards. Before a company can petition for a foreign employee's permanent residence, it must obtain a labour certification showing that hiring that person will not harm American workers. Without that certificate, the green card process cannot move forward.

Crucially, PERM is separate from the H-1B work visa. Reporting by Outlook and The Tribune indicates that the suspension does not cancel existing H-1B visas, and it does not revoke green cards that have already been granted. Workers who have already cleared the labour certification stage are not directly affected.

The people most exposed are employees whose employers had not yet completed PERM. Because a worker's place in the green card queue — the priority date — is set when the labour certification is filed, delays at this stage can be costly, especially for Indian nationals, who already face some of the longest backlogs in the system. Some H-1B holders approaching the six-year limit on their visa could also be affected, although extensions are available in certain circumstances.

The administration's case

US officials say the companies misused immigration programmes and displaced American workers, including by undercutting wages. Sonderling said the named companies had received more than 230,000 H-1B approvals and over 100,000 PERM certifications since 2009. Vice President JD Vance singled out Microsoft, alleging that the company laid off American workers in 2025 while continuing to seek H-1B approvals and file PERM applications.

These are allegations, and none of the companies has been found to have broken the law. No end date for the suspension has been announced.

The move follows a narrower action last month. On September 9, The Week reported that the Labor Department had suspended Cognizant's PERM filings following whistleblower complaints — a step that, at the time, prompted calls for similar scrutiny of other Indian IT firms.

How the companies responded

Tata Consultancy Services said it had noted the announcement and would comply with any Labor Department directive. According to Outlook Money, TCS said its PERM applications had been in single digits over the past two years, so it does not expect the suspension to affect its workforce strategy or client work, and it reiterated plans to hire 15,000 more people in the US over five years.

Markets in India took the news calmly. IT shares opened higher on October 9, with the Nifty IT index rising more than 3 per cent in early trade, though Wipro and HCLTech later slipped into the red.

What happens next

The suspension's length, and whether the companies challenge it, remain open questions. For Indian professionals in the US and those planning a move, the practical advice is to check with their employer's immigration team on where their own case stands — and not to assume that an H-1B is at immediate risk.