Green card applications from Indian IT firms on decline
Indian IT companies facing suspension from the US permanent labour certification programme have made fewer applications for green cards this year, indicating that the action may not have a significant impact on their functioning.
The US on Thursday suspended eight IT firms, including Indian tech giants Tata, Infosys, Wipro and HCL, from a programme to apply for green cards for foreign workers, contending that the practice has shut out Americans from the job market. The other companies were Capgemini, Cognizant, Microsoft and Adobe, which hire a significant number of professionals from India.
An analysis of Permanent Labour Certification (PERM) applications shows that Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) filed just two applications in the US financial year 2026, down from 513 in 2025 and 1,804 in 2024, while HCL filed 59 PERM filings in 2026, down from 323 in 2025.
Wipro filed 257 applications in 2024 and 523 in 2025. Of the 257 applications filed by Wipro in 2024, 169 were denied, and 88 were withdrawn by the company. Infosys filed 87 PERM applications in 2024.
The application data for 2025 and 2026 were not available. “Indian IT companies accounted for less than 1,400 of the 117,849 PERM certifications last year.
Less than two per cent. The direct impact may therefore be smaller than it first appears,” Vineet Nayar, former CEO of HCL Technologies, said in a post on X.
Capgemini made 98 PERM applications in 2026, compared with 361 in 2025 and 300 in 2024, according to the website PERM Tracker.
