The United States has suspended eight technology firms, including Microsoft, India’s Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro and HCL Technologies, from hiring skilled international workers on a permanent basis through a widely used visa pathway. The announcement was made earlier this month. New and pending applications under the Permanent Labor Certification Program, known as PERM, have been frozen.
The move hits Indians hardest. They hold a majority of H-1B visas, which are temporary visas for specialists. Many H-1B holders rely on PERM to move from temporary work in the US to a green card and, eventually, citizenship. For many Indians, the route to a career in America has long followed a familiar path: an engineering degree, a tech services job, a posting abroad, repeated visa renewals and finally a green card.
How the PERM freeze affects tech firms and workers
Experts say the impact on businesses may be limited. The latest decision fits with the Trump administration’s push for stricter rules on skilled-worker immigration, and tech firms have already been adjusting to those rules.
Nasscom, the trade association for India’s technology industry, which it values at $300bn (£226bn), said Indian companies have reduced their dependence on H-1B visas and are hiring more locally. It added that the number of employees moving from H-1B visas to permanent residency through PERM is therefore relatively limited.
Wipro said in a statement that more than 80% of its US workforce is hired locally. TCS said its PERM applications had been in single digits over the past two years. Microsoft said it has filed for H-1B visas mainly to retain existing staff rather than to bring in new workers.
A report in the Business Standard newspaper, citing the PERM Tracker, said TCS’s filings fell to two in 2025-26, from 513 the year before and 1,804 the year before that. According to the same report, no records were found for Infosys and Wipro for 2025-26. Questions sent to all eight companies about the impact of the restriction, and how they were supporting affected US employees, went unanswered. Brokerage firm HDFC Securities said the effect on tech firms would be minimal, because PERM-linked jobs make up only a small share of revenue, even if higher-paid American workers replaced them.
Personal toll and rising hostility toward Indian immigrants
The impact goes beyond business, according to people affected by the change. A senior executive at one of the eight firms, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the new PERM restriction would not “break the business”. He said the effect on people was far more intense.
“A good number of people we know are stuck in a space where they have spent some years in the US but their green card application hasn’t moved. Even if they are ready to move back to India, their children don’t want to because they grew up here,” he said.
Recent policy moves have deepened that uncertainty and fuelled online hostility towards Indian immigrants and H-1B holders. Researchers at Stop AAPI Hate, a US non-profit that combats discrimination against Asian and Pacific Islander communities, have reported a sharp rise in anti-South Asian online sentiment since the 2024 US election. They said Indian immigrants and H-1B holders are frequent targets.
While announcing the PERM barrier for the eight firms, US Vice President JD Vance also described foreign professionals holding H-1B visas as “foreign indentured servants”. He later acknowledged that the phrase was “imperfect”. India’s foreign ministry nevertheless criticised the remark as “unwarranted” and “deeply offensive”, citing its colonial connotations.
Poorvi Chothani, founder and managing partner of the global immigration law firm LawQuest, said many people came to the US for better prospects, borrowing heavily to study and build careers. As rules tighten, she said, they have fewer options and less ability to absorb the costs.
Limited alternatives as the green card backlog grows
Immigration experts said that as residency pathways narrow, some people may reconsider their future in the US, while others may decide not to move at all. Ahmet Gulek, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford’s Immigration Policy Lab, said that although other routes to residency exist, not many may be feasible.
Moving to another employer not covered by the suspension is one option, Gulek said, but it is unclear whether those firms would be willing to hire immigrants given “the fear of retaliation”. Changing jobs is also difficult at a time when the technology industry has already been reshaped by layoffs, cost-cutting and the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence.
Other routes exist. People with exceptional achievements, or whose work advances national interests, may qualify for categories that bypass the PERM process. Applicants can also seek permanent residency by investing at least $800,000 in eligible US enterprises. Gulek warned that some of these categories “may be targeted next”. Chothani said some applicants are so keen to stay that they are considering the EB-5 investor route, but may not have enough capital.
The National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) said nearly one million Indian nationals were waiting for employment-based green cards as of December 2025. They made up 79% of total pending applications. Its report projects waits ranging from five to 179 years for highly skilled Indians filing labour certification or employment-based petitions from January 2026, depending on the visa category.
Like other recent immigration measures, the PERM suspension may face challenges in federal court. Earlier, the Trump administration imposed a $100,000 fee on certain new H-1B petitions, but federal courts later struck it down. More recently, it has proposed a $70,000 fee for universities recommending international students for a programme that lets graduates work in the country after their studies.
An Indian professional who recently moved to an H-1B visa after a “long wait” spoke anonymously and said, “This trend is not changing anytime soon.” He said both the Republican and Democratic parties agree immigration laws need reform, even though they disagree on how. Some research suggests restrictions could shift jobs to India rather than to American workers, and industry players say they are already seeing more offshoring. Experts still believe America’s appetite for Indian tech talent is unlikely to disappear. What may change is how the US taps that talent.
