New York : The Donald Trump administration has suspended several major India-based IT companies, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro and HCL, as well as Cognizant and Capgemini and US tech giants Microsoft and Adobe, from its Permanent Labour Certification (PERM) programme, which is a crucial step in the employer-sponsored Green Card process.
Immigration attorney Geeta Darubra of Alma Immigration told media that continued uncertainty around the PERM programme could push companies to sponsor fewer Green Cards or hire more US workers, which is the ultimate goal of the White House. Indian H-1B workers, who already face lengthy waits for employment-based immigration amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and rising visa fees, could find it even harder to pursue the American dream.
She said the broader impact on Indian professionals could be significant if scrutiny extends further. Indian H-1B workers may become more reluctant to settle in the US amid uncertainty over immigration policy and existing backlogs in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories. PERM stands for Permanent Labour Certification. For readers unfamiliar with the US immigration system, PERM is essentially a labour certification process that employers generally need before sponsoring foreign workers for certain employment-based Green Cards.
If an affected company cannot file a new PERM application, an employee whose employer has not yet started that process cannot move forward with that particular Green Card route. According to the immigration attorney, the PERM suspension does not cancel existing H-1B visas. The concern is particularly for workers who have not yet started PERM and those approaching the six-year H-1B limit. The immediate impact for Indian employees at the affected companies is likely to be a delay or blockage in the employer-sponsored Green Card process.
That can be crucial for Indian H-1B workers because the Green Card process is often the route through which they seek to move from temporary US work status towards permanent residency. The longer the suspension lasts, the longer some workers may have to wait before their employers can move ahead with their applications. This is another most important point for Indian H-1B workers. An employee with valid H-1B status does not automatically lose that status because their employer has been suspended from PERM.
The situation becomes more complicated for workers approaching the maximum period of H-1B status. H-1B status is generally subject to a six-year limit, although US immigration law provides certain routes for qualifying workers to extend their status beyond that period. A worker’s progress in the employment-based Green Card process can therefore become particularly important when they approach that six-year point.
This does not mean every worker in that situation will automatically have to leave the US. But the suspension could make their immigration planning more difficult and limit some of the options available to them. The immigration attorney said pending applications are not automatically cancelled based on the latest updates. However, she said they could face heavier scrutiny from the Labour Department. For workers already somewhere in the PERM process, the immediate concern is therefore how the Labour Department handles pending applications while the suspension remains in place.
The concern, therefore, is not simply that a form may take longer to process. It is that another delay could be added to an immigration journey that is already lengthy for many Indians. If Indian IT companies remain unable to use the PERM programme, they could reassess how they recruit, retain and sponsor foreign professionals in the US. Darubra said it is difficult to predict exactly what companies will do. However, she said firms could potentially sponsor fewer Green Cards or hire more US workers because of the uncertainty.
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