The US Department of Labour (DOL) has suspended the green card filings of the US-headquartered technology services company Cognizant. The action comes as the Trump administration intensifies scrutiny of H-1B and other employee-based immigration systems over alleged visa fraud.
In a post on X, US Labour Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito said the PERM or the Permanent Labour Certification, applications submitted by Cognizant have been suspended.
PERM is the first step that employers take to hire a foreign worker to work permanently in the United States. This is different from the H-1B visa, which grants the employee a temporary work visa. The PERM is the first step towards a permanent green card.
An employer wishing to obtain the certification must provide credible evidence that no qualified U.S. workers are available for the job. This includes placing a 30-day job order with the appropriate State Workforce Agency and advertising the job posting. If a U.S worker can be trained to acquire the necessary skills, the company cannot proceed with the green card filing.
Once the certification is completed, an employer can proceed with the other stages of the employment-based green card process. Hence, suspending the PERM filings for a company creates a huge hurdle in continuing with a green card sponsorship for a foreign employee.
Historically, the Chennai-founded Cognizant has been a significant sponsor of H-1B workers. Data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services show that Cognizant’s H-1B visa petition approvals dropped to 3,510 in 2026 compared to 9,413 in 2020.
Indian workers dependent on Cognizant's new PERM filings may face delays and uncertainty until the suspension is removed. However, workers with existing labour certifications are not immediately affected.
The PERM programme is popular among other Indian IT service companies, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro and HCLTech, which sponsor employment-based green cards for Indian national employees. The DOL inspector also hinted at a crackdown on other companies, raising fresh concerns for the Indian IT sector.
