Industry Odisha Bureau,Oct 11: Washington has halted labour certification for eight technology employers. The suspensions cloud permanent residency plans for H-1B workers. They could also reshape hiring, talent retention and offshore delivery.
On 8 October, the US Labor Department froze green card processing for eight tech firms. They are Microsoft, Adobe, Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCLTech, Cognizant and Capgemini. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling announced the suspensions alongside Vice-President JD Vance. He cited ongoing criminal investigations led by the department’s Inspector General. No end date has been announced.
The order covers PERM, the Program Electronic Review Management system. It handles permanent labour certification, an early step in many employment-based green cards. Through it, an employer shows that no qualified American is available for a role. PERM does not convert an H-1B visa into residency automatically. Both new and pending applications from the eight firms are now on hold.
For workers, the freeze creates uncertainty rather than immediate danger. Existing H-1B visas and green cards are not cancelled by the suspension. However, those awaiting labour certification face open-ended delays. Some may seek visa extensions or alternative immigration categories. Others may weigh switching to employers outside the suspended group.
For employers, talent retention becomes harder. A sponsored green card has long been a powerful incentive for skilled staff. TCS has said it expects no material impact on its workforce strategy. It cited limited reliance on PERM and a focus on local US hiring.
The freeze may also shape where technology work is performed. Indian IT firms rely on a mix of onsite staff and offshore teams. Global capability centres in India are already expanding their engineering work. Software development, testing, maintenance and analytics can largely be delivered remotely. Yet a wholesale shift offshore is far from certain.
Many roles still demand a physical presence near American clients. These include consulting, architecture design, cybersecurity, project governance and crisis response. Work on sensitive systems in defence, healthcare and banking is hard to relocate. Most firms therefore run hybrid models, splitting client management and engineering execution.
The administration says tighter scrutiny protects American jobs. Officials argue some companies used visa programmes while cutting domestic staff. Vance alleged Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers while using about 6,300 H-1B visas. None of the eight firms has been found guilty of wrongdoing. Supporters say the policy could lift domestic hiring, wages and skills investment.
Critics counter that skilled immigration eases talent shortages and drives innovation. Restricting it could weaken American competitiveness in fast-moving fields such as AI. The move also adds strain to US-India technology ties. Indian professionals form a large share of America’s skilled technology workforce.
Much now depends on the outcome of the investigations. Companies may respond with more US hiring, wider offshore delivery or revised sponsorship plans. For now, many workers wait without a clear timeline. Whether the freeze protects American jobs or simply moves work abroad remains unresolved.
