US Halts Green Card Sponsorship for Major Indian IT Firms, Prompting Shift to India

On October 8, the US Department of Labor announced that it will no longer accept or process PERM labour-certification applications from eight technology and IT-services firms, among them Indian majors TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Technologies, as well as Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant and Capgemini. The decision, disclosed by Vice President JD Vance and Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, was justified by alleged fraud and the displacement of US workers.

While current H-1B visas and already-granted green cards remain valid, the halt creates longer waits for those in the queue and eliminates the PERM pathway for these employers. Dinesh Pai, a partner at Zerodha, sees a potential upside for India, suggesting firms may shift work to Indian Global Capability Centres, which already employ about 2.4 million people, and that top engineering talent might stay to build domestic AI startups.

He also warned of possible declines in the roughly $30 billion in US-sourced remittances and reduced Indian soft power. Microsoft and TCS responded by emphasizing the majority of their H-1B filings are extensions and that TCS expects to hire 15,000 more US workers in the next five years.