US Suspends Cognizant's PERM Filings: What It Means for Indian IT and Green Card Hopefuls

Few phrases make Indian IT professionals sit up faster than "US crackdown on H-1B." This time, the headlines went further than the facts. Social media posts claimed the entire Permanent Labor Certification Program had been suspended and that the biggest names in IT outsourcing, from Infosys and TCS to Wipro, HCL and Capgemini, had been shut out. That is not what has been reported. The confirmed story is narrower, but it still matters a great deal to the people it touches.

The United States suspended new permanent labour certification filings by Chennai-founded Cognizant and software firm Cloudera, as federal authorities investigate alleged fraud in employment visa programmes. Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito announced the action on September 8, saying the investigation was being conducted with the White House Fraud Task Force and other officials. Two companies were named. The program itself was not shut down.

To see why this matters, it helps to understand what PERM is. It is the Labor Department process through which employers certify that they have tested the US labour market and found no sufficient qualified, willing and available American workers for a permanent position. For many skilled foreign workers, this is the first formal step toward a green card. When a company cannot file new PERM applications, employees who were hoping to begin that journey through it are stuck waiting.

The suspension is also limited in scope. Current H-1B holders and existing approvals are not affected. The suspension means Cognizant cannot submit new PERM filings while the investigation continues. That is a serious restriction, but it is not the same as a ban on its workforce or a cancellation of visas already granted.

Just as important is what the suspension does not prove. The action does not establish that Cognizant committed fraud. The Labor Department has not disclosed the specific allegations against either company. Until officials release details, any claim about what Cognizant or Cloudera did wrong is speculation.

The action also did not come out of nowhere. It follows a wider investigation launched by the Trump administration in July into alleged fraud and abuse in the H-1B and PERM programmes. Cognizant is a major user of these programmes, but its footprint has changed over time. Labor Department data cited by Business Standard show it filed 3,436 Labor Condition Applications in 2025, compared with 10,189 in 2018.

The question every Indian IT worker is asking is whether Infosys, TCS, Wipro or HCL will be next. Here the honest answer is that nobody knows. There is no public official Labor Department or Inspector General announcement naming TCS or Infosys as targets of the Cognizant investigation or announcing a comparable PERM suspension against either company. Those firms do rely on similar visa channels, which is why the industry is watching closely, but that does not establish that they are next. I also found no reporting that mentions Capgemini in connection with this action.

So what should affected people do? If you work at Cognizant and were expecting your employer to start a green card process, talk to your HR or immigration team about how the pause affects your timeline, and keep your documents organised. If you work at another large IT firm, nothing has changed on paper, but it is wise to follow official sources rather than forwarded screenshots. Companies across the sector will likely review their own filing practices, since the spotlight on compliance is clearly getting brighter.