A fresh move by the United States government to suspend several major technology service providers from its permanent labor certification program has triggered scrutiny across the global IT corridor. However, an analysis of recent workforce filings demonstrates that the operational damage to leading Indian software firms is poised to be minimal. The insulation stems directly from a sharp, voluntary reduction in green card petitions filed by Indian IT corporations for the current fiscal period, rendering the administrative penalty largely inconsequential to their current operational run rate.
Washington Restricts Eight Technology Giants Under Labor Rules
The punitive action initiated on Thursday barred eight prominent technology enterprises from accessing the program that enables employers to sponsor foreign staff for long-term residency. The list of affected entities features Indian IT industry pillars Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, and HCLTech, alongside multinational giants Capgemini, Cognizant, Microsoft, and Adobe. These corporations collectively employ tens of thousands of Indian technology professionals across their global and American operations. In detailing the justification behind the clampdown, the US administration asserted that utilization of the foreign labor pathway was eroding job openings for domestic American workers.
Steep Contraction in Green Card Filings Led by TCS
Records compiled through permanent labor certification (PERM) filings show that corporate reliance on permanent residency sponsorship has drastically shrunk. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) submitted a mere 2 green card applications during US fiscal year 2026. This collapse in application volume marks a dramatic contrast from the company's past filings, where it lodged 513 applications in fiscal 2025 and 1804 applications in fiscal 2024.
A matching trajectory is evident at HCLTech, which registered just 59 PERM submissions in 2026, dropping down from 323 petitions recorded in fiscal 2025. Wipro submitted 257 filings in 2024, of which 169 were denied while the employer chose to withdraw 88 requests. Subsequently, Wipro submitted 523 applications in fiscal 2025. Infosys posted 87 PERM filings in 2024, though its corresponding filing metrics for fiscal years 2025 and 2026 were not made available.
Negligible Presence in Total PERM Certifications
Contextualizing the operational scale of this suspension, former HCLTech chief executive officer Vineet Nayar highlighted the actual volume on social media. Vineet Nayar noted, "Indian IT companies accounted for less than 1,400 of the 117,849 PERM certificates issued last year. That is under 2 percent. So the direct hit could be lower than initial estimates." This data underscores that despite public perceptions, Indian outsourcing firms have come to represent an extremely narrow sliver of all foreign labor approvals granted by Washington.
Multinational Filing Footprints and the Mechanics of PERM
According to data logged by the PERM Tracker portal, French multinational Capgemini submitted 98 filings in fiscal 2026, after recording 361 in 2025 and 300 in 2024. Cognizant registered 1236 filings in 2024, with its volume figures for both 2025 and 2026 remaining unlisted in available datasets.
Administered directly by the US Department of Labor, the permanent labor certification acts as the legal clearance allowing an organization to formally hire a foreign specialist for permanent employment on American soil. For thousands of engineers and consultants already stationed in the United States on temporary work visas, clearing the PERM benchmark constitutes the very first statutory requirement on the multi-year path toward securing an official green card and permanent residency.
